Is there a possibility to use one property value inside another? - msbuild

I would like to do something like this:
<PropertyGroup>
<propone>value</propone>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<proptwo>$(propone)</proptwo>
</PropertyGroup>
Pass one property value as another. Is there a way to do this? How?


I think you provided the answer right there in your question: yes, it is possible in just the way that you suggested.
An example:
<Project ToolsVersion="3.5" DefaultTargets="Test" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<SomeProperty>Some Property Value</SomeProperty>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<SomeOtherProperty>$(SomeProperty) with something added to it</SomeOtherProperty>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="Test">
<Message Text="$(SomeOtherProperty)" />
</Target>
</Project>
This will print Some Property Value with something added to it.

Related

msbuild - how to remove a string within a property

If I have
<PropertyGroup>
<Prop1>C:\asdfsa\abc;C:\sadf\def;C:\asfddsa\abc;</Prop1>
</PropertyGroup>
How do I remove all entries that contain \abc?
I want final value of $(Prop1) to be C:\sadf\def.

A property doesn't have 'entries', it's merely a string. You could fiddle with string splitting and/or regexes to erase some parts from it. On the other hand MSBuild also has Items which are more like proper lists. Going round via them is probably easier:
<Target Name="RemoveItemsFromProperty">
<PropertyGroup>
<Prop1>C:\asdfsa\abc;C:\sadf\def;C:\asfddsa\abc;</Prop1>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<Items Include="$(Prop1)"/>
<FilteredItems Include="#(Items)" Condition="! $([System.String]::Copy('%(Identity)').Contains('\abc'))"/>
</ItemGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<Prop1>#(FilteredItems)</Prop1>
</PropertyGroup>
<Message Text="$(Prop1)" />
</Target>
edit ok the regex way is easier though I'm not 100% sure my pattern covers all cases:
<Target Name="RemoveItemsFromProperty">
<PropertyGroup>
<Prop1>C:\asdfsa\abc;C:\sadf\def;C:\asfddsa\abc;</Prop1>
</PropertyGroup>
<Message Text="$([System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex]::Replace('$(Prop1)', ';[.^;]\\abc', ''))" />
</Target>

DefineConstants in addition to existing ones in csproj

It seems like if I have a csproj file like the following, I end up with BAR defined and FOO not defined.
<PropertyGroup>
<DefineConstants>FOO</DefineConstants>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<DefineConstants>BAR</DefineConstants>
</PropertyGroup>
Is there a syntax for "Define additional constants" so that I can use it and end up with both FOO and BAR defined?
I am aware that in this contrived example, I could just have
<PropertyGroup>
<DefineConstants>FOO BAR</DefineConstants>
</PropertyGroup>
But my actual use case is more complicated. I really need to be able to define a constant in addition to whatever was set before.

This does it:
<PropertyGroup>
<DefineConstants>FOO</DefineConstants>
</PropertyGroup>
<PropertyGroup>
<DefineConstants>$(DefineConstants);BAR</DefineConstants>
</PropertyGroup>

Parse key/value pairs from MSBuild property

Say I have a property like:
<MyProp>Foo=Bar;Hello=World</MyProp>
This seems like a reasonably common property pattern in MSBuild. How would I go about fetching the value "World"? In an ideal world this might look something like:
$(MyProp).(Hello)
Edit: To be clear, the property is not of my own creation, it is the output from another target that is out of my control, so I cannot change the way the property is declared.

<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<MyProp>Foo=Bar;Hello=World</MyProp>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="Foo">
<CreateItem Include="MyProp" AdditionalMetadata="$(MyProp)">
<Output TaskParameter="Include" ItemName="MyProp" />
</CreateItem>
<Message Text="Foo %(MyProp.Foo)" />
<Message Text="Hello %(MyProp.Hello)" />
</Target>
</Project>

You have two routes to follow as far as I am concerned
Declare a Property Group just like the following:
<PropertyGroup>
<Foo>Bar</Foo>
<Hello>World</Hello>
</PropertyGroup>
and then use the following method to access your properties
<Target Name="DoSomething">
<Message Text="Print this : $(Foo)" />
</Target>
or you might want to take ItemGroup Element approach like the following
<ItemGroup>
<MySolutionFiles Include="..\mySolution.sln" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="PrintItems">
<Message Text="My Files: #(MySolutionFiles)" />
</Target>
You can have the following as well
<ItemGroup>
<MyProp
Include="Foo;Hello" />
</ItemGroup>
<Target Name="PrintMyItems">
<Message Text="MyProp: #(MyProp)" />
</Target>
If there is no choice over the input then one possible solution is parsing the input into an array and then taking it from there like the following:
<PropertyGroup>
<MyProp>Foo=Bar;Hello=World</MyProp>
<Split>$(MyProp.Split(';'))</Split>
</PropertyGroup>
and then play with the array items like the following:
<Target Name="DoPrint">
<Message text="$(Split[0])" />
</Target>
Split[0] item contains your Foo=Bar which can be split into two more strings just like above. This should keep you going for now.

You don't need a property group, it's just nice to have default values in case the user doesn't pass them.
For each property you pass, the syntax to access that property is $(PropertyName).
So if you pass:
msbuild.exe /p:P1=V1 /p:P2=V2;P3=V3
You would use the property name $(P1), $(P2), $(P3).
More on MsBuild properties here.

Referencing an MSBuild property using the contents of another property

I want to be able to reference an MSBuild (3) property using the contents of another property. For example:
<PropertyGroup>
<SelectVariable>Test</SelectVariable>
<TestVariable>1</TestVariable>
<FullVariable>2</FullVariable>
</PropertyGroup>
<Message Text="Value $($(SelectVariable)Variable)"/>
In this scenario, I want the contents of TestVariable outputted (1). Is this possible?

I don't believe that is possible. However, you could achieve a similar effect with ItemGroups:
<PropertyGroup>
<SelectVariable>Test</SelectVariable>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<Variable Include="1">
<Select>Test</Select>
</Variable>
<Variable Include="2">
<Select>Full</Select>
</Variable>
</ItemGroup>
<Message Text="#(Variable)"
Condition=" '%(Select)' == '$(SelectVariable)' " />
It's a little clunky tho...

Sure this is possible. Just do:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
<PropertyGroup>
<SelectVariable>Test</SelectVariable>
<TestVariable>1</TestVariable>
<FullVariable>2</FullVariable>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="Demo01">
<PropertyGroup>
<Value>$(SelectVariable)Variable</Value>
</PropertyGroup>
<Message Text="Value $(Value)"/>
</Target>
</Project>
The result is shown in the image below.

You could use the <Choose> task to achieve something similar, but (as Peter said) that's likely to be some distance from your desire to have something short and pithy.
Perhaps psake is the answer - it has no such arbitrary and puny limits when nesting expressions and parentheses :P

MSBuild getting property substring before underscore symbol

In MSBuild I have a property which value is Name_Something. How can I get name part of this property.

With MSBuild 4
If you use MSBuild 4, you could use the new and shiny property functions.
<PropertyGroup>
<MyProperty>Name_Something</MyProperty>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="SubString">
<PropertyGroup>
<PropertyName>$(MyProperty.Substring(0, $(MyProperty.IndexOf('_'))))</PropertyName>
</PropertyGroup>
<Message Text="PropertyName: $(PropertyName)"/>
</Target>
With MSBuild < 4
You could use the RegexReplace task of MSBuild Community Task
<PropertyGroup>
<MyProperty>Name_Something</MyProperty>
</PropertyGroup>
<Target Name="RegexReplace">
<RegexReplace Input="$(MyProperty)" Expression="_.*" Replacement="" Count="1">
<Output ItemName ="PropertyNameRegex" TaskParameter="Output" />
</RegexReplace>
<Message Text="PropertyNameRegex: #(PropertyNameRegex)"/>
</Target>

If I understand your question correctly you are trying to get the substring of a MSBuild property. There is no direct way to do string manipulation in MSBuild, like in NAnt. So you have two options:
1). Create separate variables for each part and combine them:
<PropertyGroup>
<Name>Name</Name>
<Something>Something</Something>
<Combined>$(Name)_$(Something)</Combined>
</PropertyGroup>
This works fine if the parts are known before hand, but not if you need to do this dynamically.
2). Write a customer MSBuild task that does the string manipulation. This would be your only option if it needed to done at runtime.

It looks like you could use Item MetaData instead of a Property:
<ItemGroup>
<Something Include="SomeValue">
<Name>YourName</Name>
<SecondName>Foo</SecondName>
</Something>
</ItemGroup>