uCalc API Version: 5.7.0-preview.1 Released: 7/30/2026

Warning

uCalc API Preview Release Notice:This preview documentation describes the intended behavior of the API. It is not fully accurate or complete.The current preview build contains incomplete features, unoptimized performance, and is subject to breaking changes.Use of the preview version in your production code is not recommended.

Description = [string]

Property

Product: 

Transformer Library

Class: 

Rule

Gets or sets a user-defined text description for a Transformer rule, useful for attaching metadata and for debugging.

Remarks

The Description property provides a way to attach arbitrary string metadata to a Transformer Rule. This is invaluable for debugging, creating self-documenting configurations, and identifying which rule generated a specific Match at runtime.

⚙️ Getter and Setter Behavior

This property functions as both a getter and a setter:

  • Getter: When called with no arguments, myRule.Description returns the current description of the rule. If no description has been set, it returns an empty string.
  • Setter: When called with a string argument, myRule.Description = "your text" sets the rule's description. The setter supports a fluent interface, meaning it returns the Rule object itself, allowing you to chain method calls.

🎯 Core Use Cases

  • Debugging: When iterating through a list of matches, you can retrieve the rule for each match and print its description. This tells you exactly why a segment of text was matched, which is far more direct than trying to interpret a complex pattern string.
  • Self-Documentation: Store human-readable notes directly on the rule to explain its purpose or logic. This keeps the documentation tightly coupled with the code it describes.
  • Runtime Identification: Use descriptions to tag and identify specific rules for programmatic processing, such as enabling or disabling groups of rules based on their metadata.

💡 Comparative Analysis

Without an integrated Description property, developers often resort to less ideal solutions for tracking metadata:

  • External Dictionaries: Managing a Dictionary<Rule, string> is cumbersome. It requires manual synchronization, and if a Rule is released, the dictionary entry can become a memory leak.
  • Wrapper Classes: Creating a custom class just to add a description field adds significant boilerplate code.

uCalc's approach is superior because the metadata is tightly coupled with the object itself and is consistently available across the object model. This creates a unified, easy-to-use system for runtime introspection.

Examples

How to set a description on a rule and then retrieve it.

ID: 871

See: Description = [string] 
				
					using uCalcSoftware;

var uc = new uCalc();
var t = uc.NewTransformer();
var myRule = t.FromTo("Hello", "Hi");
myRule.Description = "Simple greeting replacement";

Console.WriteLine($"Rule Pattern: {myRule.Pattern}");
Console.Write("Rule Description: "); Console.Write(myRule.Description);
				
			
Rule Pattern: Hello
Rule Description: Simple greeting replacement
Explore 600+ other examples
				
					#include <iostream>
#include "uCalc.h"

using namespace std;
using namespace uCalcSoftware;

int main() {
   uCalc uc;
   auto t = uc.NewTransformer();
   auto myRule = t.FromTo("Hello", "Hi");
   myRule.Description("Simple greeting replacement");

   cout << "Rule Pattern: " << myRule.Pattern() << endl;
   cout << "Rule Description: " << myRule.Description();
}
				
			
Rule Pattern: Hello
Rule Description: Simple greeting replacement
Explore 600+ other examples
				
					Imports System
Imports uCalcSoftware
Public Module Program
   Public Sub Main()
      Dim uc As New uCalc()
      Dim t = uc.NewTransformer()
      Dim myRule = t.FromTo("Hello", "Hi")
      myRule.Description = "Simple greeting replacement"
      
      Console.WriteLine($"Rule Pattern: {myRule.Pattern}")
      Console.Write("Rule Description: ")
      Console.Write(myRule.Description)
   End Sub
End Module
				
			
Rule Pattern: Hello
Rule Description: Simple greeting replacement
Explore 600+ other examples
How to assign and retrieve descriptions for specific transformation patterns using SetDescription().

ID: 118

See: Description(string), Description = [string], Rule = [Rule] 
				
					using uCalcSoftware;

var uc = new uCalc();
var t = uc.NewTransformer();
t.Str("<h3>Title</h3><b>Bold statement</b><h3>Title B</h3><b>Other text</b><p>My paragraph</p>");

var AnyOtherTag = t.Pattern("<{tag}>{text}</{tag}>").SetDescription("other kind of tag");
var BoldTag = t.Pattern("<b>{text}</b>").SetDescription("bold tag");
var H3Tag = t.Pattern("<h3>{text}</h3>").SetDescription("h3 tag");
t.Find();

foreach(var match in t.Matches) {
   Console.WriteLine(match.Text + "   Description: " + match.Rule.Description);
}
				
			
<h3>Title</h3>   Description: h3 tag
<b>Bold statement</b>   Description: bold tag
<h3>Title B</h3>   Description: h3 tag
<b>Other text</b>   Description: bold tag
<p>My paragraph</p>   Description: other kind of tag
Explore 600+ other examples
				
					#include <iostream>
#include "uCalc.h"

using namespace std;
using namespace uCalcSoftware;

int main() {
   uCalc uc;
   auto t = uc.NewTransformer();
   t.Str("<h3>Title</h3><b>Bold statement</b><h3>Title B</h3><b>Other text</b><p>My paragraph</p>");

   auto AnyOtherTag = t.Pattern("<{tag}>{text}</{tag}>").SetDescription("other kind of tag");
   auto BoldTag = t.Pattern("<b>{text}</b>").SetDescription("bold tag");
   auto H3Tag = t.Pattern("<h3>{text}</h3>").SetDescription("h3 tag");
   t.Find();

   for(auto match : t.Matches()) {
      cout << match.Text() + "   Description: " + match.Rule().Description() << endl;
   }
}
				
			
<h3>Title</h3>   Description: h3 tag
<b>Bold statement</b>   Description: bold tag
<h3>Title B</h3>   Description: h3 tag
<b>Other text</b>   Description: bold tag
<p>My paragraph</p>   Description: other kind of tag
Explore 600+ other examples
				
					Imports System
Imports uCalcSoftware
Public Module Program
   Public Sub Main()
      Dim uc As New uCalc()
      Dim t = uc.NewTransformer()
      t.Str("<h3>Title</h3><b>Bold statement</b><h3>Title B</h3><b>Other text</b><p>My paragraph</p>")
      
      Dim AnyOtherTag = t.Pattern("<{tag}>{text}</{tag}>").SetDescription("other kind of tag")
      Dim BoldTag = t.Pattern("<b>{text}</b>").SetDescription("bold tag")
      Dim H3Tag = t.Pattern("<h3>{text}</h3>").SetDescription("h3 tag")
      t.Find()
      
      For Each match In t.Matches
         Console.WriteLine(match.Text + "   Description: " + match.Rule.Description)
      Next
   End Sub
End Module
				
			
<h3>Title</h3>   Description: h3 tag
<b>Bold statement</b>   Description: bold tag
<h3>Title B</h3>   Description: h3 tag
<b>Other text</b>   Description: bold tag
<p>My paragraph</p>   Description: other kind of tag
Explore 600+ other examples