Subsonic DAL fails compilation on columns which are keywords - subsonic3

Question

I'm using Subsonic 3 (Active Record), VS2010, Framework 3.5 against a MySQL database. Someone named a column "string." I S#*t you not.
OK, I've named some database objects some dumb names (Like naming a SQL Server table "User") before but... c'mon! And I cannot change the table because of dependencies in the app!
OK I feel a little better now that I've vented a little thanks for listening
So, of course, in the generated code I get errors all over the place from lines like:
private string string {}
I don't see this as a priority bug for Subsonic unless others are having similar issues with other column names. Any plans to do anything about this?
Thanks
Paul
p.s. I will try to talk the other developers into changing, or allowing me to change the column name, I know that is the real solution, but Subsonic could gracefully handle illegal names, maybe something like the way .netTiers handles it (add _safeName to the name, so it would become string_safeName).

Answer 1

I perhaps used the wrong language. Before I went ahead and made modifications, I wanted to make sure this was not all ready on some priority list somewhere or being worked on. Here's the way I went with it.
In Settings.ttinclude:
string[] reservedWords = new string[]{"abstract", "as", "base", "bool", "break", "byte", "case", "catch", "char", "checked",
"class", "const", "continue", "decimal", "default", "delegate", "do", "double", "else", "enum", "event", "explicit",
"extern", "finally", "fixed", "float", "for", "foreach", "goto", "if", "implicit", "in", "int", "interface", "internal",
"is", "lock", "long", "namespace", "new", "null", "object", "operator", "out", "override", "params", "private",
"protected", "public", "readonly", "ref", "return", "sbyte", "sealed", "short", "sizeof", "stackalloc", "static", "string",
"struct", "switch", "this", "throw", "try", "typeof", "unit", "ulong", "unchecked", "unsafe", "ushort", "using", "virtual",
"void", "volatile", "while", "FALSE", "TRUE", "yield", "by", "descending", "from", "group", "into", "orderby", "select",
"var", "where" };
string CleanUp(string tableName){
string result=tableName;
//strip blanks
result=result.Replace(" ","");
if(reservedWords.Contains(result)){
result += "_SafeName";
}
//put your logic here...
return result;
}
The CleanUp function already fixes table and column names, so I put my logic there. I hope I got all the reserved words...
This is also on a smaller project where the database is MySQL.
So this hack/patch is only for c#/mysql, but very easy to move to other DBs/languages.

Answer 2

You can fix this yourself very easily.
Open up the SQLServer.ttinclude file. It's a T4 template file that SubSonic uses to generate your code.
Almost halfway down, on line 155, you will find the LoadColumns function:
List<Column> LoadColumns(Table tbl){
var result=new List<Column>();
var cmd=GetCommand(COLUMN_SQL);
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("#tableName",tbl.Name);
using(IDataReader rdr=cmd.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior.CloseConnection)){
while(rdr.Read()){
Column col=new Column();
col.Name=rdr["ColumnName"].ToString();
col.CleanName=CleanUp(col.Name);
col.DataType=rdr["DataType"].ToString();
col.SysType=GetSysType(col.DataType);
col.DbType=GetDbType(col.DataType);
col.AutoIncrement=rdr["IsIdentity"].ToString()=="1";
col.IsNullable=rdr["IsNullable"].ToString()=="YES";
int.TryParse(rdr["MaxLength"].ToString(),out col.MaxLength);
result.Add(col);
}
}
return result;
}
Simply add logic here in this function when it assigns the name to change from the column name in your database, "string", to something a little more sane.
List<Column> LoadColumns(Table tbl){
var result=new List<Column>();
var cmd=GetCommand(COLUMN_SQL);
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("#tableName",tbl.Name);
using(IDataReader rdr=cmd.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior.CloseConnection)){
while(rdr.Read()){
Column col=new Column();
var rawName = rdr["ColumnName"].ToString();
if (rawName.Equals("string")) {
col.Name="StringColumn";
} else {
col.Name=rawName;
}
col.CleanName=CleanUp(col.Name);
col.DataType=rdr["DataType"].ToString();
col.SysType=GetSysType(col.DataType);
col.DbType=GetDbType(col.DataType);
col.AutoIncrement=rdr["IsIdentity"].ToString()=="1";
col.IsNullable=rdr["IsNullable"].ToString()=="YES";
int.TryParse(rdr["MaxLength"].ToString(),out col.MaxLength);
result.Add(col);
}
}
return result;
}
Also, were you to put some time into it and make it handle all keywords (say, through lookup in a static dictionary and change the names by appending a common suffix or dictionary substitution), then you could submit back a patch to the project and contribute instead of trying to talk the other developers into doing it.

Answer 3

If you change the LoadColumns method you'll still have problems on the foreign keys, but you can replace your CleanUp(string tableName) method in Setting.ttinclude to:
string CleanUp(string tableName){
string result=tableName;
//strip blanks
result=result.Replace(" ","");
//put your logic here...
if (reservedWords.Contains(result)) {
result = "_" + result;
}
return result;
}
this worked like a charm for me.