Doing Delegates Differently - Part 2

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Introduction

In Part one of this series, I covered some basics of delegates and using them to group, delay and change the order of functions which were added to a list of delegates dynamically. In part two, I will demonstrate the ability to use delegates and generics to create a validator which will validate various types and classes.

The program I have included is an expansion of the program which was included in part one and has a separate form to demonstrate these new concepts.

The program itself doesn’t do much, but you can place break points in the code to unit test the ideas and concepts.

When the program runs, press the button that says Part 2 to get to Form2 which contains code examples for this article.

Background

The validator includes two basic classes.

(Form2 Region - Example Helper Classes)

clsValidator

This is a class which contains a reference to a Func<T,bool> delegate called CurrentValidator and a reference to two clsValidators, FailValidator and PassValidator.

If the CurrentValidator is successful, the PassValidator is called, if false the FailValidator is called.

Using this, you can create a tree like structure of nodes to be traversed based on true or false values.

It’s defined as:

    class clsValidator<T>
    {
        public Func<T, bool> CurrentValidator { get; set; }
        public clsValidator<T> FailValidator { get; set; }
        public clsValidator<T> PassValidator { get; set; }

    }

DelegateValidator

• Value – type of T can accept any type
• ValidationRules which contains a root node of clsValidator objects
• And a Boolean function of Valid() which is called to use the Validation rules to validate the Value

It is defined as:

    class DelegateValidator<T>
    {
        public T Value { get; set; }

        public clsValidator<T> ValidationRules { get; set; }

        internal bool Valid()
        {
            //Seed the recursive routine with root node
            return Valid(ValidationRules, Value);
        }
        /// <summary>
        /// This is a recursive call which traverses the clsValidator nodes.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="currval">Validator function</param>
        /// <param name="RecurseValue">Value</param>
        /// <returns>true or false</returns>
        private bool Valid(clsValidator<T> currval, T RecurseValue)
        {
            //invoke the Func<T,bool> to test the Value
            bool success = currval.CurrentValidator.Invoke(RecurseValue);
            if (success)
            {
                if (currval.PassValidator != null)
                    return Valid(currval.PassValidator, RecurseValue);
            }
            else
            {
                if (currval.FailValidator != null)
                    return Valid(currval.FailValidator, RecurseValue);
            }

            return success;
        }
    }

Using the Code

(Form 2 Region One, Example One)

I define the following to test an integer value:

        private void btnExample1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            //We are going to be testin integer values
            DelegateValidator<int> dint = new DelegateValidator<int>();

            bool retval;

            //Create a linked list of clsValidator, 
            //Current validator test to see if Value is greater than 1, 
            //if so then next validator (PassValidator) tests to see if Value is also < 10
            dint.ValidationRules = new clsValidator<int> { 
                CurrentValidator = (i) => { return i > 0; }, 
                PassValidator = new clsValidator<int> { 
                    CurrentValidator = (i) => { return i < 10; } 
                } 
            };

            dint.Value = -1;
            retval = dint.Valid(); //False, less then 0 - fails first validator, 
                                   //never goes to second validator

            dint.Value = 5;
            retval = dint.Valid(); //True, greater then 0 and 
                                   //less then 10 - both validators return true

            dint.Value = 50;
            retval = dint.Valid(); //False, greater then 0 and 
                                   //greater then 10 - first validator passes, second fails.
        }

Here is a diagram which illustrates what is shown in code:

Notice that you do not need to create a validator for all paths, only what you want to further test. So when the first validation test fails, we simply return fail as a return from Valid().

(Form 2 Region Two, Example Two)

I define the following to test a string value, the top part uses the inline syntax shown in example one, the second half shows using functions defined outside of the click event scope.

        private void btnExample2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            //First test - defining validator with anonymous functions
            DelegateValidator<string> delstr = new DelegateValidator<string>();
            delstr.Value = "Steve";
            //inline validation - first length > 1 then first char is Upper case
            delstr.ValidationRules = new clsValidator<string>() 
                { CurrentValidator = (s) => { return s.Trim().Length > 1; }, 
                    PassValidator = new clsValidator<string>() 
                    { CurrentValidator = (s) => { return char.IsUpper(s, 0); } } 
                };
            bool isValid = delstr.Valid(); // With "Steve", Validation passes.

            //Second Test - defining validators with functions which match the signature.
            clsValidator<string> mv = new clsValidator<string>();
            mv.CurrentValidator = LengthMinValidator; //Check to see if it passes min length
            mv.PassValidator = new clsValidator<string>(); //If so,
            mv.PassValidator.CurrentValidator = LengthMaxValidator; //Check to see if max length

            mv.PassValidator.PassValidator = new clsValidator<string>() { 
                CurrentValidator = FirstLetterUpperValidator };
            
            mv.PassValidator.FailValidator = new clsValidator<string>();
            //If max validator fails, check to see if number.
            mv.PassValidator.FailValidator.CurrentValidator = IsNumberValidator; 

            delstr.ValidationRules = mv; //Assigning new rules.
            delstr.Value = "cat";
            isValid = delstr.Valid(); //Should be false, passes min and max but not Upper case;

            delstr.Value = "10000";
            isValid = delstr.Valid(); //Should be true, long and numeric

            delstr.Value = "10";
            isValid = delstr.Valid(); //Should be false, not long and not upper case;

            delstr.Value = "Cat";
            isValid = delstr.Valid(); //Should be true;
        }

        private bool LengthMinValidator(string s)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("LengthMinValidator");
            return s.Length > 1;
        }

        private bool LengthMaxValidator(string s)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("LengthMaxValidator");
            return s.Length < 5;
        }

        private bool FirstLetterUpperValidator(string s)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("FirstLetterUpperValidator");
            return Char.IsUpper(s, 0);
        }

        private bool IsNumberValidator(string s)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("IsNumberValidator");
            long j;
            return Int64.TryParse(s, out j);
        }

(Form2 Region - Example Helper Classes)

The last example is showing a class which can be validated. It uses a class defined as:

class clsEmployee
    {
        public string FirstName { get; set; }
        public string LastName { get; set; }
        public int Age { get; set; }
        public DateTime BirthDate { get; set; }
        public string Webpage { get; set; }

    }

To keep this more clear, I defined all of the validators outside of the click event as individual validators.

The tests I have created for this class are as follows:

• All instances must have a FirstName and LastName filled in.
• If an instance contains a Webpage, validate it using regex.
• If an instance has an age greater than zero, confirm against the Birthdate entered.

The following validating functions are defined:

(Form 2 Region Three, Example Three)

        private bool checkFirstName(clsEmployee e)
        {
            return e.FirstName != null && e.FirstName.Length > 0;
        }
        private bool checkLastName(clsEmployee e)
        {
            return e.LastName != null && e.LastName.Length > 0;
        }

        private bool checkWebAddress(clsEmployee e)
        {
            //Regex from google search :)   
            Regex rg =
                new Regex(@"[-a-zA-Z0-9@:%._\+~#=]{2,256}\.[a-z]{2,6}\b([-a-zA-Z0-9@:%_\+.~#?&//=]*)");
            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(e.Webpage))
                return true;
            if (e.Webpage.Trim().Length == 0)
                return true; // not an error
            else
                return rg.IsMatch(e.Webpage);
        }

        private bool checkAge(clsEmployee e)
        {
            if (e.Age > 0)
            {
                if (DateTime.Now.Year - e.BirthDate.Year == e.Age)
                    return true;

                return false;
            }
            else
                return true; //not an error not to enter an age
       
        }

Here are some samples of people I have added to the example. The first two will validate as true, the last two will validate as false.

            clsEmployee ce1 = new clsEmployee() {
                FirstName = "Bob", LastName = "Marley"
            };
            clsEmployee ce2 = new clsEmployee() {
                FirstName = "Steve",
                LastName = "Contos",
                Webpage = @"<a href="http://www.PolarisSolutions.com">http://www.PolarisSolutions.com</a>"
            };
            //will fail on both webpage and if you fix page will fail on age
            clsEmployee ce3 = new clsEmployee() {
                FirstName = "Bill",
                LastName = "Gates",
                Webpage = @"<a href="http://wwwMicrosoftcom">http://wwwMicrosoftcom</a>",
                Age = 10,
                BirthDate = Convert.ToDateTime("10/28/1955").Date
            };
	    //Will fail because no last name	
            clsEmployee ce4 = new clsEmployee()
            {
                FirstName = "Steve"
            };

Finally, this is how you would wire up the validator:

            DelegateValidator<clsEmployee> dv = new DelegateValidator<clsEmployee>();
            dv.ValidationRules = new clsValidator<clsEmployee>()
            {
                CurrentValidator = checkFirstName,
                PassValidator = new clsValidator<clsEmployee>()
                {
                    //First name passes
                    CurrentValidator = checkLastName,
                    PassValidator = new clsValidator<clsEmployee>()
                    {
                        //Last name passes
                        CurrentValidator = checkWebAddress,
                        PassValidator = new clsValidator<clsEmployee>()
                        {
                            //Web address passes
                            CurrentValidator = checkAge
                        }
                    }
                }
            };

Again, I only assign PassValidator but you could also assign FailValidator as well.

Points of Interest

I hope this article shows yet another approach to a common problem. Other approaches include using the Microsoft Enterprise library which contains a robust validation mechanism. If you enjoyed this topic, you might also want to look further into expression trees which also uses delegates and lambda expressions.