Nest.CSharp 1.0.0

Nest.CSharp

Nest.CSharp is a fluent, lightweight, zero-dependency source code generator preconfigured for C#. It helps you generate structured C# source code through a clean, builder-style API — so you can focus on what to generate, not how to format it.

📦 Installation

Install via the .NET CLI:

dotnet add package Nest.CSharp

🚀 Overview

Built on .NET Standard 2.0, Nest.CSharp works across all .NET versions with no external dependencies. It handles indentation, structure, formatting, and character escaping — all out of the box.

🧪 Example

Let's imagine we want to generate the following C# code:

using System.Text;

namespace MyProgram
{
    public class MyProgram
    {
        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            if (count > 6)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
                Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
            }
        }
    }
}

Here's how we'll do it:

using Nest.CSharp;

var _ = new CSharpBuilder();

_.L("using System.Text;");

_.B("namespace MyProgram", _ =>
{
    _.B("public class MyProgram", _ =>
    {
        _.B("public static void Main(string[] args)", _ =>
        {
            _.B("if (count > 6)", _ =>
            {
                _.L("Console.WriteLine(`Hello World!`);");
                _.L("Console.WriteLine(`Hello World!`);");
            })
            .B("else", _ =>
            {
                _.L("Console.WriteLine(`Hello World!`);");
            });
        });
    });
});

Console.WriteLine(_.ToString());

✨ Key Features

✅ Fluent API — Code That Writes Code

Write source generation logic that looks nearly identical to the output. No manual formatting, indentation, or brace management required.

🧠 Token-Aware Formatting

The builder system knows its context — it automatically places line breaks and indentation where needed according to widely accepted formatting rules in the C# community. Which makes your generated code clean and readable.

🔄 Character Replacement System

Write code with backticks instead of escaped double quotes:

_.L("Console.WriteLine(`Hello World!`);"); // <-- Notice Backtick (`)

It is preconfigured to replace Backtick (`) with Double Quotes ("). You can customize & remove character replacements as below:

_.Options.RegisterCharReplacement('`', '"');
_.Options.RemoveCharReplacement('`');

🤔 Why Nest?

• ✅ Fluent, readable, and chainable API
• ✅ No need to manage indentation or formatting manually
• ✅ Output closely mirrors your generation code
• ✅ No dependencies
• ✅ Works with any .NET project

📚 Getting Started

1. Install the package
2. Use CSharpBuilder to define your structure
3. Call .ToString() to get the generated output

🔗 Links

• 📦 NuGet: https://www.nuget.org/packages/Nest.CSharp/
• 💻 GitHub: https://github.com/h-shahzaib/Nest