How to replace default interface property implementation expansion with automatic properties

By default, when you implement an interface in a class, you get the following for properties:

public string ClassName
{
    get
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }
    set
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }
}

But of course the typical thing to do is to implement them as automatic properties. You have two options at this point: modify the default expansion snippet, or do a find & replace with a regex.

How to change the default property stub expansion

Open the PropertyStub.snippet from C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC#\Snippets\1033\Refactoring\PropertyStub.snippet, and change the from:

<Code Language="csharp">
    <![CDATA[$signature$
{
    $GetterAccessibility$ get
    {
        $end$throw new $Exception$();
    }
    $SetterAccessibility$ set
    {
        throw new $Exception$();
    }
}]]>
</Code>

to:

<Code Language="csharp">
    <![CDATA[$signature$ { get; set; }]]>
</Code>

Done. Now implementing an interface shields:

public string ClassName { get; set; }

How to replace default property expansion with a regular expression

Find: (?\w+)\s*\\{\s*get\s*\\{\s*throw\snew\sNotImplementedException\\(\\);\s*\\}\s*set\s*\\{\s*throw\snew\sNotImplementedException\\(\\);s*\\}\s*\\}

Replace: ${member} { get; set; }

Use the Power Tools inline replace in the text editor (Ctrl + H) because the replacement string is in .NET Regex format.

Update : you can do the same trick (add automatic get; private set;) to interfaces that only have a getter defined (note the private set;), by changing the snippet at C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC#\Snippets\1033\Refactoring\PropertyStubGet.snippet. I’ve both now in place, and doing interface-based programming (a good thing!) is now more enjoyable .

/kzu