Random number with alias method in C#

Example about generating random number using the alias method in C#

    public static class RandomExtensions
    {
        public static int GetAlias(this Random rnd, IEnumerable<int> probs)
        {
            int random = rnd.Next(probs.Sum());
            int sum = 0;
            int idx = 0;
            foreach (var p in probs)
            {
                sum += p;
                if (sum >= random)
                    break;
                idx++;
            }

            return idx;
        } // GetAlias
    }

We pass the method a list of int containing the probability we want for that index.

Test program

    class Program
    {               
        class Animal 
        {
            public Animal(string name) {
                Name = name;
            }
            public string Name { get; set; }
            public int Count { get; set; }
        } 

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            List<Animal> values = new List<Animal>
            {
                new Animal("Cat"),
                new Animal("Dog"),
                new Animal("Sheep"),
                new Animal("Cow"),
                new Animal("Turtle"),
            };

            int[] probs = new int[] { 10, 50, 10, 10, 20 };
            Random rnd = new Random();
            for (int i=0; i < 100; i++) {
                int number = rnd.GetAlias(probs);
                values[number].Count++;
            }

            foreach (var a in values) {
                Console.WriteLine($"{string.Format("{0,-10}", a.Name)}: {string.Format("{0,2}", a.Count)}");
            }
        }
    }

Test program output

Cat       :  6
Dog       : 49
Sheep     : 12
Cow       : 11
Turtle    : 22

Avalonia UI Framework localization

So you want to localize your application developed using the Avalonia UI Framework? Let’s see how it can be done.

Some informations are taken from this bug report.

To localize an application we must be able to

  • Localize strings directly in the XAML
  • Get access to the localization strings in the code

To translate strings in the XAML we can use a custom MarkupExtension and bindings

    public class LocalizeExtension : MarkupExtension
    {
        public LocalizeExtension(string key)
        {
            this.Key = key;
        }

        public string Key { get; set; }

        public string Context { get; set; }

        public override object ProvideValue(IServiceProvider serviceProvider)
        {
            var keyToUse = Key;
            if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(Context))
                keyToUse = $"{Context}/{Key}";

            var binding = new ReflectionBindingExtension($"[{keyToUse}]")
            {
                Mode = BindingMode.OneWay,
                Source = Localizer.Instance,
            };

            return binding.ProvideValue(serviceProvider);
        }
    }

Note that in addition to the string key there’s also a context, used to have different translations for the same string in different contexts.

This extension can be used in XAML:

<Window xmlns="https://github.com/avaloniaui"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
        xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
        xmlns:i18n="clr-namespace:AvaloniaLocalizationExample.Localizer" 
        mc:Ignorable="d" d:DesignWidth="800" d:DesignHeight="450"
        x:Class="AvaloniaLocalizationExample.MainWindow"
        WindowStartupLocation="CenterScreen"
        Width="500" Height="350"
        Title="AvaloniaLocalizationExample">

  <StackPanel Orientation="Vertical" Margin="15">
    <Label Content="{i18n:Localize Language}" />
    <ComboBox SelectedIndex="0" SelectionChanged="OnLanguageChanged">
      <ComboBoxItem>English</ComboBoxItem>
      <ComboBoxItem>Italian</ComboBoxItem>
    </ComboBox>

    <TextBlock FontSize="21" Text="{i18n:Localize HelloWorld}"/>
    <TextBlock FontSize="21" Text="{i18n:Localize HelloWorld, Context=Second}"/>
    <TextBlock FontSize="21" Text="{i18n:Localize MissingTranslation}"/>
  </StackPanel>
</Window>

We need to define the namespace first

xmlns:i18n="clr-namespace:AvaloniaLocalizationExample.Localizer" 

then we can bind strings using our MarkupExtension

<TextBlock FontSize="21" Text="{i18n:Localize HelloWorld}"/>

Now we need a way to translate the strings to the desired language. An easy way is to use JSON files containing the context/key with the corresponding translated text. We can embed the JSON files using assets

Missing strings are displayed as the language code followed by a semicolon and the string key.

public class Localizer : INotifyPropertyChanged
    {
        private const string IndexerName = "Item";
        private const string IndexerArrayName = "Item[]";
        private Dictionary<string, string> m_Strings = null;

        public Localizer()
        {

        }

        public bool LoadLanguage(string language)
        {
            Language = language;
            var assets = AvaloniaLocator.Current.GetService<IAssetLoader>();

            Uri uri = new Uri($"avares://AvaloniaLocalizationExample/Assets/i18n/{language}.json");
            if (assets.Exists(uri)) {
                using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(assets.Open(uri), Encoding.UTF8)) {
                    m_Strings = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<string, string>>(sr.ReadToEnd());
                }
                Invalidate();

                return true;
            }
            return false;
        } // LoadLanguage

        public string Language { get; private set; }

        public string this[string key]
        {
            get
            {
                string res;
                if (m_Strings != null && m_Strings.TryGetValue(key, out res))
                    return res.Replace("\\n", "\n");

                return $"{Language}:{key}";
            }
        }

        public static Localizer Instance { get; set; } = new Localizer();
        public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

        public void Invalidate()
        {
            PropertyChanged?.Invoke(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(IndexerName));
            PropertyChanged?.Invoke(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(IndexerArrayName));
        }
    }

Since we are using bindings and INotifyPropertyChanged the translated text is applied as soon as we load a new language.

To access to the translated strings in the code use the static Localizer using the string key

Localizer.Localizer.Instance["Key"]

You can download the source code here

How to read huge Excel file using C#

Reading a Excel file is easy using the SpreadsheetDocument and SheetData classes but this method uses a lot of memory if the Excel file is big.
This is due to the fact that to get the sheet data the framework loads the entire file into memory.

To read huge files it is better to use the OpenXmlReader.

Here’s an example usage of the OpenXmlReader (it also consider the SharedString)

public static IEnumerable> ReadData(string fileName)
{
    using (SpreadsheetDocument spreadsheetDocument = SpreadsheetDocument.Open(fileName, false)) {
        WorkbookPart workbookPart = spreadsheetDocument.WorkbookPart;
        WorksheetPart worksheetPart = workbookPart.WorksheetParts.FirstOrDefault();
        if (workbookPart != null) {
            using (OpenXmlReader oxr = OpenXmlReader.Create(worksheetPart)) {
                IEnumerable sharedStrings = workbookPart.SharedStringTablePart.SharedStringTable.Elements();
                while (oxr.Read()) {
                    if (oxr.ElementType == typeof(Row)) {
                        oxr.ReadFirstChild();

                        List rowData = new List();
                        do {
                            if (oxr.ElementType == typeof(Cell)) {
                                Cell c = (Cell)oxr.LoadCurrentElement();
                                string cellValue;
                                if (c.DataType != null && c.DataType == CellValues.SharedString) {
                                    SharedStringItem ssi = sharedStrings.ElementAt(int.Parse(c.CellValue.InnerText));
                                    cellValue = ssi.Text.Text;
                                } else {
                                    cellValue = c.CellValue.InnerText;
                                }

                                rowData.Add(cellValue);
                            }
                        } while (oxr.ReadNextSibling());

                        yield return rowData;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
} // GetData

To loop the Excel’s rows

foreach (List rowData in ReadData(fileName)) {
    ...
}

The OpenXmlReader uses less memory, but it is slow.
For faster reading you can use the ExcelDataReader, it is available also as a NuGet package.

How to use the BASS audio library in UWP development

The BASS audio library is a solid library to decode and play many audio formats, supports gapless playback (using the mixer, not used in this example) and equalizer (not used in this example).

The library is available also for Windows Store development.

To reference the BASS audio library in your UWP project remember to add conditional references based on platform in the csproj file

<ItemGroup Condition="'$(Platform)' == 'x86'">
  <Content Include="$(SolutionDir)bass\Windows 10\x86\bass.dll">
    <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
  </Content>
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup Condition="'$(Platform)' == 'x64'">
  <Content Include="$(SolutionDir)bass\Windows 10\x64\bass.dll">
    <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
  </Content>
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup Condition="'$(Platform)' == 'ARM'">
  <Content Include="$(SolutionDir)bass\Windows 10\arm\bass.dll">
    <CopyToOutputDirectory>PreserveNewest</CopyToOutputDirectory>
  </Content>
</ItemGroup>

Let’s see how we can use the library in a background audio player.

First we need the background task. Here we initialize the BASS audio library, and free it when the task ends. Since we are going to use BASS only to decode the audio we can use the “no sound” device.

using System;
using Un4seen.Bass;
using Windows.ApplicationModel.Background;
using Windows.Foundation.Collections;
using Windows.Media.Playback;

namespace BackgroundPlayer
{
  public sealed class Player : IBackgroundTask
  {
    BackgroundTaskDeferral m_Deferral;
    BassMediaSource m_MediaSourceAdapter = null;

    public void Run(IBackgroundTaskInstance taskInstance)
    {
      m_Deferral = taskInstance.GetDeferral();
      taskInstance.Canceled += TaskInstance_Canceled;
      taskInstance.Task.Completed += TaskInstance_Completed;

      BassNet.Registration("Your email", "Your registration key");
      if (!Bass.BASS_Init(0, 44100, BASSInit.BASS_DEVICE_DEFAULT, IntPtr.Zero)) {
        BASSError err = Bass.BASS_ErrorGetCode();
        m_Deferral.Complete();
        return;
      }

      BackgroundMediaPlayer.MessageReceivedFromForeground += OnMessageReceived;
    }

    private void TaskInstance_Canceled(IBackgroundTaskInstance sender, BackgroundTaskCancellationReason reason)
    {
      Bass.BASS_Free();
      m_Deferral.Complete();
    }

    void TaskInstance_Completed(BackgroundTaskRegistration sender, BackgroundTaskCompletedEventArgs args)
    {
      Bass.BASS_Free();
      m_Deferral.Complete();
    }
  }
}

Now we need to play the file when the foreground app asks for it. Communication between the foreground app and the background task is made through messages.

When the background task receives a “file” request message it opens the file using BASS (we’ll see later how) and sets the media source of the bacgkround media player.

private async void OnMessageReceived(object sender, MediaPlayerDataReceivedEventArgs args)
{
  ValueSet msg = args.Data;

  if (msg.ContainsKey("file")) {
    string audioFile = msg["file"] as string;
    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(audioFile)) {
      m_MediaSourceAdapter = await BassMediaSource.CreateAsync(audioFile);
      BackgroundMediaPlayer.Current.Source = MediaSource.CreateFromIMediaSource(m_MediaSourceAdapter.GetMediaSource());
      BackgroundMediaPlayer.Current.Play();
    }
  }
}

The BassMediaSource class implements IMediaSource and is the one responsible of opening and playing the file.

The code is quite simple: we need to create the decode stream for the BASS audio library and listen to the MediaSource events (Closed, Starting, SampleRequested).

public async Task InitializeAsync()
{
  StorageFile sFile = await StorageFile.GetFileFromPathAsync(m_FilePath);
  BasicProperties prop = await sFile.GetBasicPropertiesAsync();
  m_FileSize = prop.Size;

  m_BassHandle = Bass.BASS_StreamCreateFile(m_FilePath, 0, (long)m_FileSize, BASSFlag.BASS_STREAM_DECODE);
  if (m_BassHandle == 0) {
    BASSError err = Bass.BASS_ErrorGetCode();
    System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("InitializeAsync error {0}", err);
  }

  BASS_CHANNELINFO cInfo = Bass.BASS_ChannelGetInfo(m_BassHandle);
  if (cInfo == null) {
    BASSError err = Bass.BASS_ErrorGetCode();
    System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("InitializeAsync error {0}", err);
  }
  long len = Bass.BASS_ChannelGetLength(m_BassHandle, BASSMode.BASS_POS_BYTES);
  double secs = Bass.BASS_ChannelBytes2Seconds(m_BassHandle, len);
  uint bits = 16;
  if (cInfo.Is32bit)
    bits = 32;
  else if (cInfo.Is8bit)
    bits = 8;

  AudioEncodingProperties pcmprops = AudioEncodingProperties.CreatePcm((uint)cInfo.freq, (uint)cInfo.chans, bits);
  m_MediaStreamSource = new MediaStreamSource(new AudioStreamDescriptor(pcmprops));
  m_MediaStreamSource.CanSeek = true;
  m_MediaStreamSource.BufferTime = TimeSpan.Zero;
  m_MediaStreamSource.Duration = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(secs);
  m_MediaStreamSource.Closed += mss_Closed;
  m_MediaStreamSource.Starting += mss_Starting;
  m_MediaStreamSource.SampleRequested += mss_SampleRequested;
} // InitializeAsync

The SampleRequested event occurs when then audio player needs a decoded sample to play. Here we just need to decode the requested data and return it to the player.

void mss_SampleRequested(MediaStreamSource sender, MediaStreamSourceSampleRequestedEventArgs args)
{
  var deferral = args.Request.GetDeferral();
  System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("mss_SampleRequested");

  try {
    byte[] buffer = new byte[4096];
    int decoded = Bass.BASS_ChannelGetData(m_BassHandle, buffer, buffer.Length);
    if (decoded == -1) {
      BASSError err = Bass.BASS_ErrorGetCode();
      System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("mss_SampleRequested error {0}", err);
    } else {
      double secs = Bass.BASS_ChannelBytes2Seconds(m_BassHandle, decoded);

      MediaStreamSample sample = MediaStreamSample.CreateFromBuffer(buffer.AsBuffer(), TimeSpan.FromSeconds(m_SecondsPosition));
      sample.Duration = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(secs);
      m_SecondsPosition += sample.Duration.TotalSeconds;
      args.Request.Sample = sample;
    }
  } catch { }
  deferral.Complete();
} // mss_SampleRequested

The application lets you select a file from your music library (files outside of your music library won’t work because the application does not have access to external folders).

Here’s the full source code of the test program (remember to set your BASS registration info)

Download source code

Have fun! 😉