What are your favorite extension methods for C#? (codeplex.com/extensionoverflow)

Answer 1

For Winform Controls:

/// 

/// Returns whether the function is being executed during design time in Visual Studio.
/// 
public static bool IsDesignTime(this Control control)
{
    if (LicenseManager.UsageMode == LicenseUsageMode.Designtime)
    {
        return true;
    }

    if (control.Site != null && control.Site.DesignMode)
    {
        return true;
    }

    var parent = control.Parent;
    while (parent != null)
    {
        if (parent.Site != null && parent.Site.DesignMode)
        {
            return true;
        }
        parent = parent.Parent;
    }
    return false;
}

/// 

/// Sets the DropDownWidth to ensure that no item's text is cut off.
/// 
public static void SetDropDownWidth(this ComboBox comboBox)
{
    var g = comboBox.CreateGraphics();
    var font = comboBox.Font;
    float maxWidth = 0;

    foreach (var item in comboBox.Items)
    {
        maxWidth = Math.Max(maxWidth, g.MeasureString(item.ToString(), font).Width);
    }

    if (comboBox.Items.Count > comboBox.MaxDropDownItems)
    {
        maxWidth += SystemInformation.VerticalScrollBarWidth;
    }

    comboBox.DropDownWidth = Math.Max(comboBox.Width, Convert.ToInt32(maxWidth));
}

IsDesignTime Usage:

public class SomeForm : Form
{
    public SomeForm()
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        if (this.IsDesignTime())
        {
            return;
        }

        // Do something that makes the visual studio crash or hang if we're in design time,
        // but any other time executes just fine
    }
}

SetDropdownWidth Usage:

ComboBox cbo = new ComboBox { Width = 50 };
cbo.Items.Add("Short");
cbo.Items.Add("A little longer");
cbo.Items.Add("Holy cow, this is a really, really long item. How in the world will it fit?");
cbo.SetDropDownWidth();

I forgot to mention, feel free to use these on Codeplex...