fuse

Fuse is a tiny package that let's you attach properties to .NET types dynamically at runtime. This can be useful if you want to associate data or meta-data with types that you can't change.

The SetFused and GetFused methods can be used to set/get arbitrary properties on any .net object. In the following example an instance of MyClass is assigned to the fused property foobar on myObject:

var myObject = "A simple string";
var myClass = new MyClass { Foo = 42, Bar = "Success!" };
myObject.SetFused("foobar", myClass);

var luckyNumber = myObject.GetFused<MyClass>("foobar")!.Foo;
var result = myObject.GetFused<MyClass>("foobar")!.Bar;

class `MyClass` 
{
    public int Foo {get; set; }
    public string Bar {get; set; }
}

Generic overloads

Alternatively you can use the Generic overloads, SetFused<T> and GetFused<T>, which automatically assign a property name based on the type of the value being stored/retrieved. In the following example an instance of MyClass is assigned to the fused property MyClass on myObject:

var myObject = "A simple string";
var myClass = new MyClass { Foo = 42, Bar = "Success!" };
myObject.SetFused<MyClass>(myClass);

var luckyNumber = myObject.GetFused<MyClass>()!.Foo;
var result = myObject.GetFused<MyClass>()!.Bar;

class MyClass 
{
    public int Foo {get; set; }
    public string Bar {get; set; }
}

If you don't need to fuse more than one instance of a particular type with an object, you might find this syntax more concise.

Fused

Finally, the Fused extension lets you automatically create and bolt an additional property onto any object. For this to work, the Type you're fusing must have a parameterless constructor.

You can see an example of how this is used in the Sample application, but it looks something like this in action:

// We start with a humble string
string brendan = "Brendan Eich (/ˈaɪk/; born July 4, 1961)";
UnpackDetails(brendan);
// And now our string has a aggregate Person property fused to it... no initialisation necessary - Person just
// has to have a parameterless constructor
var firstName = brendan.Fused<Person>().FirstName;

void UnpackDetails(string input)
{
    Regex regex = new Regex(@"(?<first>\w+) (?<last>\w+) \(.*; born (?<dob>.+)\)");
    Match match = regex.Match(input);

    var dob = match.Groups["dob"].Value;
    // Here we fuse some additional properties to the string so that we can use these later on
    input.Fused<Person>().FirstName = match.Groups["first"].Value;
    input.Fused<Person>().LastName = match.Groups["last"].Value;
    input.Fused<Person>().DateOfBirth = DateTime.ParseExact(dob, "MMMM d, yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
}

class Person
{
    public string? FirstName { get; set; }
    public string? LastName { get; set; }
    public DateTime DateOfBirth { get; set; }
}