What's your most reused class? - language-agnostic

Question

Every programmer ends up with a set of utility classes after a while. Some of them are true programming pearls and they are reused in several of your projects. For example, in java:
class Separator {
private String separator;
private boolean called;
public Separator(String aSeparator) {
separator = aSeparator;
called = false;
}
#Override
public String toString() {
if (!called) {
called = true;
return "";
} else {
return separator;
}
}
}
and:
public class JoinHelper {
public static <T> String join(T... elements) {
return joinArray(" ", elements);
}
public static <T> String join(String separator, T... elements) {
return joinArray(separator, elements);
}
private static <T> String joinArray(String sep, T[] elements) {
StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
Separator separator = new Separator(sep);
for (T element : elements) {
stringBuilder.append(separator).append(element);
}
return stringBuilder.toString();
}
}
What is your most reused class?

Answer 1

System.Object - almost all my types extend it.

Answer 2

A utility class that has logging and email functionality. An extensions class that contains extension methods. A reporting class that basically harness the reporting services web service and makes it easy to stream reports as excel, pdf, etc.
Examples...
1.) Utility Class (static)
public static void LogError(Exception ex)
{
EventLog log = new EventLog();
if (ex != null)
{
log.Source = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["EventLog"].ToString();
StringBuilder sErrorMessage = new StringBuilder();
if (HttpContext.Current.Request != null && HttpContext.Current.Request.Url != null)
{
sErrorMessage.Append(HttpContext.Current.Request.Url.ToString() + System.Environment.NewLine);
}
sErrorMessage.Append(ex.ToString());
log.WriteEntry(sErrorMessage.ToString(), EventLogEntryType.Error);
}
}
2.) Extensions Class
public static IEnumerable<TSource> WhereIf<TSource>(this IEnumerable<TSource> source, bool condition, Func<TSource, bool> predicate)
{
if (condition)
return source.Where(predicate);
else
return source;
}

Answer 3

public static short getLastDayOfMonth(short givenMonth, short givenYear)
{
short lastDay = 31;
switch (givenMonth)
{
case 4:
case 6:
case 9:
case 11:
lastDay = 30;
break;
case 2:
if ((int)givenYear % 4 == 0)
{
lastDay = 29;
}
else
{
lastDay = 28;
}
break;
}
return lastDay;
}

Answer 4

Most reused but boring:
public static void handleException(Exception e) throws RuntimeException {
if (e instanceof RuntimeException) {
throw (RuntimeException) e;
}
throw new RuntimeException(e); //NOPMD
}
Less boring (also methods for building lists and sets):
/**
* Builds a Map that is based on the Bean List.
*
* #param items Bean List items
* #param keyField Bean Field that will be key of Map elements (not null)
* #return a Map that is based on the Bean List
*/
#SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
public static <T, K> Map<K, T> buildMapFromCollection(final Collection<T> items,
boolean linkedMap,
final String keyField,
final Class<K> keyType) {
if (items == null) {
return Collections.emptyMap();
}
if (keyField == null) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException("KeyField is null");
}
final Map<K, T> result;
if (linkedMap) {
result = new LinkedHashMap<K, T>();
} else {
result = new HashMap<K, T>();
}
BeanMapper mapper = null;
for (final T item : items) {
if (mapper == null) {
mapper = new BeanMapper(item.getClass());
}
final K key = (K) mapper.getFieldValue(item, keyField);
result.put(key, item);
}
return result;
}

Answer 5

Logger class: Which logs the flow of control in a log file.

Answer 6

Configuration Reader/Setter: which reads the configuration from ini/xml file and sets the environment of the application

Answer 7

Most reused? Hmmm...
boost::shared_ptr<> with boost::weak_ptr<>
probably most reused (also probably most bang-for-buck ratio)

Answer 8

Globals
Just a simple class with static DBConnString, and a few other app wide settings.
Have reused the simple file in about 2 dozen projects since working with .Net

Answer 9

A ConcurrentDictionary I wrote, which I now seem to use everywhere (I write lots of parallel programs)