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Simplify string formatting with SmartFormat.NET

String formatting is a common task in software development and allows you to create dynamic and informative output. Traditional approaches such as string concatenation and compound formatting are widely used, but they quickly become unwieldy and error-prone when formatting requirements become more complex. This is where SmartFormat.NET comes in, a powerful and flexible string formatting library that simplifies the process and offers advanced functionality. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at SmartFormat.NET and how it can improve your string formatting needs.

Neuerungen in .NET 8

Noch ein halbes Jahr bis zum Release von .NET 8 - Zeit sich anzuschauen, was wir neues erwarten dürfen.

LTS Release

.NET 8 ist erneut ein LTS-Release; wie alle geraden Versionsbezeichner. Das bedeutet:

Detect Windows 10 and Windows 11 with .NET

Version numbers have always been a rather weird maintained matter under Windows; however, it became particularly bad with Windows 10, respectively 11. Actually, Windows 10 was supposed to be the last version number - but as most people correctly assumed, this has changed as we know.

Using Azure DevOps Pipeline Variables in PowerShell Script Files

Azure Pipelines inherently provides the ability for PowerShell scripts to be defined and executed inline.

1- task: AzureCLI@2
2  displayName: Bicep apply
3  inputs:
4    azureSubscription: MyAzureDevOpsConnectionName
5    scriptType: pscore
6    scriptLocation: inlineScript
7    inlineScript: az deployment group create --resource-group $(AZ_PLATFORM_RESOURCE_GROUP_NAME) --name $(AZ_DEPLOYMENT_NAME)-$(AZ_ENV_NAME) 

Unfortunately, this can become very confusing in many situations and also repetitive, since, for example, an Azure Bicep deployment task is required in several stages, so that the task is repeated accordingly.

Efficient deserialization of Json files on Azure Blob Storage with .NET

System.Text.Json is currently the most modern way to handle Json files efficiently. Efficiency here also means that memory sparing files are read in.

Use constants in Azure Bicep to simplify your IaC life.

Azure is an ecosystem full of constants, identifiers, IDs or role definitions. Unfortunately, ARM and Bicep do not provide as much support as they could.
So you have to become active yourself, as bitter as it sounds.

Microsoft has moved Teams backend service to .NET 6 - the performance results

September last year, Microsoft announced that a large number of backend services would be migrated to .NET 6. This, they said, was an enterprise-wide initiative .

A struct with an interface is inefficient in .NET

Structs have their advantages in .NET: they are especially efficient in the runtime if used correctly.

But if you use structs with an interface, the massive advantages unfortunately turn into disadvantages:
As soon as an interface is attached to a struct, Boxing comes into effect; the values are thus copied over and over again, which is usually not what you want - but it also shows up in the benchmarks.

Difference of is null vs equals null and why is null is recommended

Both C# is null and == null are used to check if a variable or object is null, but they work slightly differently.

Create Symbolic Links on Windows with .NET

Symbolic Links (often abbreviated as symlinks) are a type of file or folder shortcut in Windows that reference another file or folder in the file system, rather than copying its contents. Unlike a normal shortcut, a symlink acts as if it were the original file or folder, so any changes to the symlink will affect the original file and vice versa.