Introduction

Energy.Core is a .NET class library which boosts your program with functionality covering various type conversions, utility classes, database abstraction layer, object mapping and simple application framework.

The library is designed to run wherever .NET runs. A single consistent API spans .NET 2.0 through .NET Standard 2.0, so the same code compiles for a legacy Windows CE device and a modern cloud microservice without any changes.

Whether you need safe number parsing, color-coded console output, structured logging, SQL query construction, HTTP requests, binary compression, or a thread-safe database connection, Energy.Core covers it with minimal friction and no unnecessary dependencies.

☢️ Filled with radioactive rays ☢️

Installation

The easiest way is to install using NuGet either by finding the Energy.Core package in the official gallery or by executing one of the following commands.

Package Manager:

Install-Package Energy.Core

.NET CLI:

dotnet add package Energy.Core

Installation package contains versions for .NET 4, .NET Standard / .NET Core and legacy .NET 2. NuGet will choose the appropriate version automatically.

Documentation

http://energy-core.readthedocs.io/

Examples

Safely converting value types

Conversion functions are in Energy.Base.Cast. They try to convert a value to the desired type and return a default when conversion is impossible, so there are no exceptions to catch.

int numberInt = Energy.Base.Cast.StringToInteger("123");
long numberLong = Energy.Base.Cast.StringToLong("1234567890");
double numberDouble = Energy.Base.Cast.StringToDouble("3.1415"); // also accepts "3,1415"
Console.WriteLine(Energy.Base.Cast.DoubleToString(numberDouble));

The last line always produces the culture-invariant form 3.1415.

Both parsing directions work: string to numeric, numeric to string, and between numeric types, all with graceful handling of nulls, empty strings, and out-of-range inputs.

Displaying bytes in pretty format

byte[] array = Energy.Base.Random.GetRandomByteArray(40);
Console.WriteLine(Energy.Base.Hex.Print(array));

Which may result in example output.

2c c5 31 be  de 96 fb 5a  76 53 b7 84  2c 09 8d 16   ,.1....ZvS..,...
88 0f c5 6c  50 c3 69 51  48 99 4b 9f  53 00 79 89   ...lP.iQH.K.S y.
1d c9 de c6  4a c9 dc e2                             ....J...

This was very basic usage but you may extend it with different formatting options, offsets and even coloring.

Colorful console output

Energy.Core.Tilde is a color-text engine for console applications. Embed color markers using the tilde character (~) to switch between the sixteen standard console colors inline.

Energy.Core.Tilde.WriteLine("~green~Success:~white~ all tests passed.");
Energy.Core.Tilde.WriteLine("~red~Error:~0~ connection refused.");
Energy.Core.Tilde.WriteLine("~yellow~Warning:~0~ deprecated API in use.");
Energy.Core.Tilde.WriteLine("~red~Breaking: ~white~Hell, ~yellow~yea.");

Colors can be referenced by full name (~green~, ~white~, ~red~) or by short alias (~g~, ~w~, ~r~). Use ~0~ or ~default~ to restore the terminal’s original color.

Logging events

Energy.Core.Log provides structured, multi-destination logging. Set up the global singleton once and it writes to the console, a file, or both simultaneously.

Energy.Core.Log.Default.Setup("app.log", true, null);

Energy.Core.Log.Default.Write("Application started");
Energy.Core.Log.Default.Write("Connection failed", Energy.Enumeration.LogLevel.Error);
Energy.Core.Log.Default.Write(exception);

Log entries carry a message, a severity level, a source name, an error code, a timestamp, and an optional exception, so structured processing and filtering are straightforward.

Waiting for user input on console

When you call Console.ReadLine() the program stops until the user presses Enter. Energy.Core.Tilde.ReadLine() returns null while nothing has been entered yet, letting your program continue running and poll for input when convenient.

Compress and decompress data

Energy.Base.Compression provides several algorithms out of the box.

byte[] data = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("Hello, Energy.Core!");

// Deflate
byte[] compressed     = Energy.Base.Compression.Deflate.Compress(data);
byte[] decompressed   = Energy.Base.Compression.Deflate.Decompress(compressed);

// GZip
byte[] gzipped        = Energy.Base.Compression.GZip.Compress(data);
byte[] ungzipped      = Energy.Base.Compression.GZip.Decompress(gzipped);

// ZX0 - optimal sliding-window compression for small binary payloads
byte[] zx0Packed      = Energy.Base.Compression.ZX0.Compress(data);
byte[] zx0Unpacked    = Energy.Base.Compression.ZX0.Decompress(zx0Packed);

// LZ4 - fast block-format compression
byte[] lz4Packed      = Energy.Base.Compression.LZ4.Compress(data);
byte[] lz4Unpacked    = Energy.Base.Compression.LZ4.Decompress(lz4Packed);

// LZSS - sliding-window algorithm suited for repetitive binary data
byte[] lzssPacked     = Energy.Base.Compression.LZSS.Compress(data);
byte[] lzssUnpacked   = Energy.Base.Compression.LZSS.Decompress(lzssPacked);

Naming convention helpers

Energy.Base.Naming converts a word list to any common identifier style.

string[] words = new string[] { "user", "profile", "name" };

string camel    = Energy.Base.Naming.CamelCase(words);    // userProfileName
string pascal   = Energy.Base.Naming.PascalCase(words);   // UserProfileName
string snake    = Energy.Base.Naming.SnakeCase(words);    // user_profile_name
string kebab    = Energy.Base.Naming.KebabCase(words);    // user-profile-name
string constant = Energy.Base.Naming.ConstantCase(words); // USER_PROFILE_NAME
string train    = Energy.Base.Naming.TrainCase(words);    // User-Profile-Name

Each style also has a corresponding Is* predicate for validation, such as Energy.Base.Naming.IsCamelCase(text).

Working with INI configuration files

string content = "[Database]\nServer=localhost\nPort=3306\n";
Energy.Base.Ini.IniFile ini = new Energy.Base.Ini.IniFile();
ini.Parse(content);
Console.WriteLine(ini["Database"]["Server"]);

The parser supports configurable comment characters, key-value separators, and section brackets. Use ini.Load("settings.ini") to read directly from a file instead.

Easily make REST requests

string url = "https://www.google.com/search?q=Energy";
Console.WriteLine(Energy.Core.Web.Get(url).Body);

Easy to use, built upon standard System.Net.WebRequest class REST functions available for common methods like GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD or OPTIONS.

Generic SQL database connection

Here database connection is made using a general connection class cooperating with each ADO.NET provider of the database connection.

Energy.Source.Connection<MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlConnection> db
    = new Energy.Source.Connection<MySql.Data.MySqlClient.MySqlConnection>();
db.ConnectionString = @"Server=127.0.0.1;Database=test;Uid=test;Pwd=test;";
if (!db.Test())
{
    Console.WriteLine("Connection test error");
}
else
{
    string result = db.Scalar<string>("SELECT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP()");
    Console.WriteLine("Current server time is: {0}", result);
}

Connections are thread-safe, may be cloned or even set to be persistent if you want to limit connections to your SQL database.

Running a background worker

Energy.Core.Worker<T> is a generic thread-worker base class. Override the Work method and call Start and Stop to control the lifecycle.

public class ClockWorker : Energy.Core.Worker<object>
{
    public override void Work()
    {
        while (!Stopped)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now);
            Sleep(1000);
        }
    }
}

ClockWorker worker = new ClockWorker();
worker.Start();

Content

Library has been divided into several different namespaces. Following table briefly describes the purpose of each of them.

  • Energy.Base - Core utility classes covering conversions, text, binary data, hashing, compression, file I/O, collections, network helpers, and format parsers for INI, CSV, JSON, XML, and YAML

  • Energy.Core - Application framework functions: logging, colorful console output, HTTP client, application host, configuration, threading workers, and benchmarking

  • Energy.Query - SQL query building with dialect support for ANSI SQL, MySQL, SQLite, and SQL Server

  • Energy.Source - Database abstraction layer: thread-safe ADO.NET connection, object-to-row mapping, schema inspection, and connection factory

  • Energy.Attribute - Custom attributes for metadata, code annotations, and data binding

  • Energy.Enumeration - Shared enumerations used across the library

  • Energy.Interface - Interfaces for common lifecycle patterns: start/stop, socket client and server, file load/save, logger, and worker

  • Energy.Support - Platform support helpers for Compact Framework and WinAPI compatibility

History

Working for many years on different development projects, from simple applications, web applications, to a rich and monolithic production environment with plenty of small software programs that act as interfaces and all kinds of small services, as most of you have probably noticed that some part of the functionality is repeated to a greater or lesser extent regardless of the project type.

This library was created completely independently from my professional work as an attempt to build a “base”, which can be quickly used in almost any project in order not to repeat again the same codes to achieve functionality like safe (international) type conversion or generic database connection which is easy and most importantly safe to use.

❤️ Made with love for you ❤️

Greetings

To be continued…