Specifying pre-set values

In this tutorial, we'll look at how we can have pre-set values on our types.

Pre-set values have two common uses:

to represent known values
to represent values that users of a Value Object can’t create

Let's look at the first scenario, representing known values. Create the following type:

[ValueObject<float>]
public partial struct Centigrade
{
   public static readonly Centigrade WaterFreezingPoint = From(0.0f);
   public static readonly Centigrade WaterBoilingPoint = From(100.0f);
   public static readonly Centigrade AbsoluteZero = From(-273.15f);
}

You can now use it like so:

Console.WriteLine(Centigrade.WaterFreezingPoint);
Console.WriteLine(Centigrade.WaterBoilingPoint);
Console.WriteLine(Centigrade.AbsoluteZero);

... resulting in

0
100
-273.15

These known instances can bring domain terms into your code; for instance, it's easier to read this than numeric literals of 0 and -273.15:

if(waterTemperature == Centigrade.WaterFreezingPoint) ...

Now, let's take a look at the other scenario of representing values that can't (and shouldn't) be created externally. The term 'externally' user here, means users of the class.

Let's revisit our CustomerId from the validation tutorial. We want to say that an instance with a value of zero means that the customer wasn’t specified, but we don't want users to explicitly create instances with a value of zero. Let's try it out. Create this type again:

[ValueObject<int>]
public partial struct CustomerId
{
    private static Validation Validate(int input) => input > 0 
        ? Validation.Ok 
        : Validation.Invalid("Customer IDs must be greater than 0.");    
}

We know from the validation tutorial the above code throws an exception. This means that users can't create one with a zero value. All well and good. But we (the author of the type), want to create one with a zero.

We can do this with a known-instance:

[ValueObject<int>]
public partial struct CustomerId
{
    public static readonly CustomerId Unspecified = new(0);
    
    private static Validation Validate(int input) => input > 0 
        ? Validation.Ok 
        : Validation.Invalid("Customer IDs must be greater than 0.");    
}

We can now use the instance of an unspecified customer id:

Console.WriteLine(CustomerId.Unspecified);

>> 0

This can be useful in representing optional or missing data in your domain, e.g.

public CustomerId TryGetOptionalCustomerId(string input)
{
    if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(input))
    {
        return CustomerId.Unspecified;
    }

    return CustomerId.From(123);
}

This again makes the domain easier to read and eliminates a scenario where a null might otherwise be used.

There were other ways to declare instances which are now obsolete, as described in this How-to article

Last modified: 16 September 2024