Increment Version Number in C# Code

Question

I am maintaining document version in database. lets say i want to update or increment the version number. i have tried this but it shows me the properties are read only?

string _versionDB = "1.0.0.0"

var version = new Version(_versionDB);
version.MajorRevision = version.Minor + 1; //error it says read only

Please can anyone elaborate me the proper way of increment version number?

Answer 1

You could create an extension method to perform the addition for you. Still requires custom code; but if you're doing this in a lot of places having such a helper method is likely useful. Below are a few such functions which may help.

public static class VersionExtension {

    public static Version IncrementRevision(this Version version) {
        return AddVersion(version, 0, 0, 0, 1);
    }
    public static Version IncrementBuild(this Version version) {
        return IncrementBuild(version, true);
    }
    public static Version IncrementBuild(this Version version, bool resetLowerNumbers) {
        return AddVersion(version, 0, 0, 1, resetLowerNumbers ? -version.Revision : 0);
    }
    public static Version IncrementMinor(this Version version) {
        return IncrementMinor(version, true);
    }
    public static Version IncrementMinor(this Version version, bool resetLowerNumbers) {
        return AddVersion(version, 0, 1, resetLowerNumbers ? -version.Build : 0, resetLowerNumbers ? -version.Revision : 0);
    }
    public static Version IncrementMajor(this Version version) {
        return IncrementMajor(version, true);
    }
    public static Version IncrementMajor(this Version version, bool resetLowerNumbers) {
        return AddVersion(version, 1, resetLowerNumbers ? -version.Minor : 0, resetLowerNumbers ? -version.Build : 0, resetLowerNumbers ? -version.Revision : 0);
    }

    public static Version AddVersion(this Version version, string addVersion) {
        return AddVersion(version, new Version(addVersion));
    }
    public static Version AddVersion(this Version version, Version addVersion) {
        return AddVersion(version, addVersion.Major, addVersion.Minor, addVersion.Build, addVersion.Revision);
    }
    public static Version AddVersion(this Version version, int major, int minor, int build, int revision) {
        return SetVersion(version, version.Major + major, version.Minor + minor, version.Build + build, version.Revision + revision);
    }
    public static Version SetVersion(this Version version, int major, int minor, int build, int revision) {
        return new Version(major, minor, build, revision); 
    }

    /*
    //one day we may even be able to do something like this...
    //https://github.com/dotnet/csharplang/issues/192
    public static Version operator +(Version version, int revision) {
        return AddVersion(version, 0, 0, 0, revision);
    }
    public static Version operator ++(Version version) {
        return IncrementVersion(version);
    }   
    */

}

Example Usage

void Main()
{
    Version myVersion = new Version ("1.2.3.4");
    myVersion = myVersion.IncrementRevision();
    Console.WriteLine(myVersion); //1.2.3.5
    myVersion = myVersion.IncrementMinor();
    Console.WriteLine(myVersion); //1.3.0.0
}