StringVersion

A lightweight, high-performance .NET library for parsing and comparing string-based versions, supporting multiple comparison strategies (including SemVer). Features a Span-based tokenizer, custom strategies, and is compatible with a wide range of .NET targets.

Features

• Parse and compare version strings (e.g., 1.2.3, 1.2.3-beta, 2023.01.01)
• Semantic Versioning (SemVer) comparison out of the box
• Customizable comparison strategies via IVersionCompareStrategy
• Span-based tokenizer for minimal allocations
• Operator overloads for intuitive comparisons (==, !=, >, <, etc.)
• Supports .NET Standard 2.0/2.1, .NET Framework 4.6.2+, .NET 5+, .NET 6+, .NET 7+, .NET 8+, .NET 9, .NET 10

Installation

You can add the package via NuGet (when published):

dotnet add package StringVersion

Usage

Basic Construction & Parsing

using System.StringVersion;

// Construct directly
var v1 = new StringVersion("1.2.3-beta");

// Parse (throws on invalid input)
var v2 = StringVersion.Parse("1.2.3");

// TryParse (safe, returns bool)
if (StringVersion.TryParse("2.0.0-rc1", out var v3))
    Console.WriteLine($"Parsed: {v3}");

// ToString
Console.WriteLine(v1.ToString()); // Output: 1.2.3-beta

Comparison

// Operator overloads
if (v1 < v2)
    Console.WriteLine($"{v1} is less than {v2}");
if (v1 == v2)
    Console.WriteLine("Equal");

// CompareTo
int cmp = v1.CompareTo(v2); // -1, 0, 1

// Equals
bool eq = v1.Equals(v2);

Supported Operators

• ==, !=
• <, >, <=, >=

if (v1 >= v2) { /* ... */ }

Semantic Versioning (SemVer)

var semver1 = new StringVersion("1.2.3-alpha.1");
var semver2 = new StringVersion("1.2.3-alpha.2");
Console.WriteLine(semver1 < semver2); // True

Other Comparison Formats

new StringVersion("V1.2.3") > 1; // True
new StringVersion("V1.2.3") > 1L; // True
new StringVersion("V1.2.3") > 1.2d; // True
new StringVersion("V1.2.3") == "1.2.3"; // True
new StringVersion("V1.2.3") == (1, 2, 3); // True
new StringVersion("V1.2.3") == new Version(1, 2, 3); // True
new StringVersion("V1.2.3") == new StringVersion("1.2.3"); // True

Custom Comparison Strategy

Implement IVersionCompareStrategy to define your own comparison logic:

public class MyStrategy : IVersionCompareStrategy
{
    public int Compare(ReadOnlySpan<StringToken> x, ReadOnlySpan<StringToken> y)
    {
        // Custom comparison logic
        return x.Length.CompareTo(y.Length); // Example
    }
}

// Use custom strategy
var custom = new StringVersion("1.2.3", new MyStrategy());

Advanced Usage

• Supports IComparable, IEquatable
• Can be used as dictionary keys or in sets
• Efficient, allocation-minimizing parsing (Span-based)
• Handles versions with prefixes, suffixes, and various delimiters

// Sorting
var versions = new[] {
    new StringVersion("1.0.0"),
    new StringVersion("1.0.0-beta"),
    new StringVersion("2.0.0")
};
Array.Sort(versions);

// Dictionary usage
var dict = new Dictionary<StringVersion, string>();
dict[new StringVersion("1.0.0")] = "Release 1";

For more details and extension scenarios, see the source code and interface definitions.

Project Structure

• src/System.StringVersion/ - Main library
• src/System.StringVersion.Tests/ - xUnit test project
• src/System.StringVersion.Benchmarks/ - BenchmarkDotNet performance benchmarks

Build & Test

Run tests:

dotnet test src/System.StringVersion.Tests

Run benchmarks:

dotnet run -c Release --project src/System.StringVersion.Benchmarks

Target Frameworks

• .NET Standard 2.0, 2.1
• .NET Framework 4.6.2, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
• .NET 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

License

MIT

Repository

https://github.com/emako/StringVersion