PowerShell and the Microsoft Roslyn Code Quoter tool

Kirill Osenkov blogged Roslyn Code Quoter tool – generating syntax API calls to generate any C# program and put it here.

Whether you’ve played with the Roslyn CTP or are planning to do so in the future, chances are that sooner or later you’ll run into a need to generate code.

I took out the chewy bits and worked up a PowerShell version.

Here on GitHub.

Try It

Here I’m passing in a simple string of C#.

.\quoting.ps1 "var x = 1;"

Now that the Roslyn Code Quoter is plugged into the PowerShell ecosystem, you could easily recursively search a directory of C# files, crack them open and pass the contents top the code quoter.

dir . -Recurse *.cs | % { .\quoter.ps1 (Get-Content $_.FullName) }

See More

My book “Windows PowerShell for Developers” was released. Check it out, I have more examples integrating Microsoft Roslyn CTP and PowerShell plus another couple hundred pages of how Developers can ramp up PowerShell.

• Slice and dice Text, XML, CSV, and JSON effortlessly
• Embed PowerShell to provide scripting abilities for your C# apps
• Create GUI applications five to ten times faster with less code
• Leverage PowerShell’s capabilities to work with the Internet
• Interact with DLLs and create objects, automatically display properties, and call methods in live interactive sessions
• Build domain-specific languages (DSLs) and vocabularies to express solutions more clearly
• Work with Microsoft Office via the Component Object Model (COM)
• Discover PowerShell v3 features included with Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012

Results of the Code Quoter

Source        : var x = 1;
Evaluated     : var x = 1;
GeneratedCode : Syntax.CompilationUnit()
                .WithMembers(
                    Syntax.List(
                        Syntax.FieldDeclaration(
                            Syntax.VariableDeclaration(
                                Syntax.IdentifierName(
                                    Syntax.Identifier(
                                        @"var",
                                        Syntax.TriviaList(
                                            Syntax.Space))))
                            .WithVariables(
                                Syntax.SeparatedList(
                                    Syntax.VariableDeclarator(
                                        Syntax.Identifier(
                                            @"x",
                                            Syntax.TriviaList(
                                                Syntax.Space)))
                                    .WithInitializer(
                                        Syntax.EqualsValueClause(
                                            Syntax.LiteralExpression(
                                                SyntaxKind.NumericLiteralExpression,
                                                Syntax.Literal(
                                                    Syntax.TriviaList(),
                                                    @"1",
                                                    1,
                                                    Syntax.TriviaList())))
                                        .WithEqualsToken(
                                            Syntax.Token(
                                                SyntaxKind.EqualsToken,
                                                Syntax.TriviaList(
                                                    Syntax.Space)))))))
                        .WithSemicolonToken(
                            Syntax.Token(
                                SyntaxKind.SemicolonToken))))
                .WithEndOfFileToken(
                    Syntax.Token(
                        SyntaxKind.EndOfFileToken))
AreEqual      : True