Dumpy.Console 1.1.1

Dumpy.Console

A fast object dumper that renders rich formatted output directly to your terminal. Ideal for data visualization, debugging and diagnostics: inspect objects, collections, tuples, DataTables, and more without writing custom pretty-printers.

Supports: netstandard2.1, net6.0 and later

Installation

.NET CLI

dotnet add package Dumpy.Console

Package Manager

Install-Package Dumpy.Console

PackageReference

<ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Dumpy.Console" Version="1.0.0"/>
</ItemGroup>

🛈 This package depends on Spectre.Console for rich console visuals.

Quick start

Dump any object to the console

using Dumpy.Console;
var person = new { Name = "Ada", Age = 37 };
person.Dump();

Add a title

person.Dump("Person");

Customize rendering via options

using Dumpy.Console;
var options = new ConsoleDumpOptions
{
    MaxDepth = 3,
    ReferenceLoopHandling = ReferenceLoopHandling.IgnoreAndSerializeCyclicReference,
    TableOptions = new TableOptions
    {
        ShowTitles = false,
    }
};
person.Dump("Person", options);

Options

Default options:

new ConsoleDumpOptions
{
    // Choose what to do with cyclic references, options: 
    // Error, Ignore, IgnoreAndSerializeCyclicReference, Serialize
    ReferenceLoopHandling = ReferenceLoopHandling.Error,
    
    // Limit traversal depth to avoid overly deep graphs.
    MaxDepth = 5,
    
    // Limit the number of items to dump from a collection. Set if you dump large lists, arrays...etc.
    MaxCollectionItems = int.MaxValue,

    // Whether to include dump instance fields.
    IncludeFields = false,
    
    // Whether to include non public properties and fields.
    IncludeNonPublicMembers = false,
    
    // Filter which member (property of field) will be included in the output.
    MemberFilter = m => true,
    
    // Register custom ConsoleConverter instances to control how specific types are rendered.
    Converters = { new MyConsoleConverter() },

    // If true, will wrap string values with double quotes (") and char values with single quotes (').
    ShowTextQuotes = false,
    
    // Control table visuals (titles, headers, row separators, expand behavior).
    Tables = new TableOptions
    {
        ShowTitles = true,              // Show table titles
        ShowHeaders = true,             // Show table headers
        ShowRowSeparators = true,       // Show table row line separators
        Expand = false,                 // Expand the table width to fill available space
    },
    
    // Customize output styling.
    Styles = new StyleOptions
    {
        Border           = new Style(Color.PaleTurquoise4),
        TitleText        = new Style(decoration: Decoration.Bold | Decoration.Underline),
        TableTitleText   = new Style(decoration: Decoration.Bold | Decoration.Dim),
        TableHeaderText   = new Style(decoration: Decoration.Bold),
        TableBorderType  = TableBorder.Rounded,
        
        String           = new Style(Color.LightSalmon1),
        Char             = new Style(Color.LightSalmon1),
        Boolean          = new Style(Color.Cyan1),
        Enum             = new Style(Color.Yellow4_1),
        Guid             = new Style(Color.Plum3),
        DateAndTime      = new Style(Color.Gold3),
        Numeric          = new Style(Color.SkyBlue2),
        
        Null             = new Style(decoration: Decoration.Dim),
        EmptyCollection  = new Style(decoration: Decoration.Dim | Decoration.Bold),
    }
}

API overview

The main utility class is the ConsoleDumper static class, which provides the following extension methods.

// Dumps the value directly to the console, and returns the same value. The second one has an option "title" parameter.
T DumpConsole(this T value, ConsoleDumpOptions? options = null)
T DumpConsole(this T value, string? title, ConsoleDumpOptions? options = null)

// Converts the value to a "Spectre.Console" `IRenderable`.
IRenderable DumpToRenderable(this T value, ConsoleDumpOptions? options = null)
IRenderable DumpToRenderable(this T value, Type valueType, ConsoleDumpOptions? options = null)

Usage

Dump to the console directly:

person.Dump();                   // <== using the extension method, or
ConsoleDumper.Dump(person);      // <== using the ConsoleDumper static class

Annotate the output with a title:

person.Dump("John Doe");

Dump to a IRenderable and then write it to the console yourself:

var renderable = person.DumpToRenderable();
AnsiConsole.Write(renderable);

Supported types

You can dump almost any .NET object or value, including:

• Primitives, anonymous types, POCOs
• Enumerables and collections (including multidimensional arrays)
• Tuples and ValueTuples
• DataTable and DataSet
• JsonDocuments and JsonElements
• XmlNodes and XNodes

Custom converters

To add your own converter, create a ConsoleConverter or a factory and register it via ConsoleDumpOptions.Converters

var options = new ConsoleDumpOptions();
options.Converters.Add(new MyCustomTypeConsoleConverter());