Display XML comments generic params in Intellisence for static method

Question

I'm having trouble getting the generic parameters for the two methods below to display the types in Intellisence.

For the IEnumerable<T> I just simply want it to show as double.

And for the IDictionary<TKey,TValue> overload, I want it to show KeyValuePair<int,string> but of course without hard-coding the types.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Collections;

namespace Common.FluentValidation
{
    public static partial class Validate
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Compares two dictionaries are null or contain equal sets of items.
        /// Returns true if both instances are null or contain equal sets of <see cref="T:System.Collections.Generic.KeyValuePair'1{TKey}{TValue}"></see> items; otherwise, false.
        /// </summary>
        /// <typeparam name="TKey">The type of the key.</typeparam>
        /// <typeparam name="TValue">The type of the value.</typeparam>
        /// <param name="A">The first instance to compare</param>
        /// <param name="B">The second instance to compare</param>
        /// <returns>true if both instances are null or contain equal sets of <see cref="T:System.Collections.Generic.KeyValuePair'1{TKey}{TValue}"></see> items; otherwise, false.</returns>
        public static bool AreBothNullOrEqualSets<TKey, TValue>(IDictionary<TKey, TValue> A, IDictionary<TKey, TValue> B)
        {
            // XOR for null
            if ((A == null) ^ (B == null))
                return false;

            // Compare each value in set
            if (A != null)
                if (!A.OrderBy(x => x.Key).SequenceEqual(B.OrderBy(x => x.Key)))
                    return false;

            return true;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Compares two sequences are null or contain equal sets of items.
        /// Returns true if both instances are null or contain equal sets of <see cref="T:Common.FluentValidation.AreBothNullOrEqualSets`1"/> items; otherwise, false.
        /// </summary>
        /// ///  for more information.
        /// <typeparam name="T">The type of the enumerable.</typeparam>
        /// <param name="A">The first instance to compare</param>
        /// <param name="B">The second instance to compare</param>
        /// <returns>true if both instances are null or contain equal sets of <see cref="T:Common.FluentValidation.AreBothNullOrEqualSets`1"/> items; otherwise, false.</returns>
        public static bool AreBothNullOrEqualSets<T>(IEnumerable<T> A, IEnumerable<T> B)
        {
            // XOR for null
            if ((A == null) ^ (B == null))
                return false;

            // Compare each value in set
            if (A != null)
                if (!A.SequenceEqual(B))
                    return false;

            return true;
        }
    }
}

I searched and found a few hints, but have attempted several things with no luck. Best I can get is for it to just display "T" in the Intellisence balloon, which leaves something to be desired...

EDIT:

Here's Microsoft doing it on the class level type params... but not on the constructor... So is this possible for methods/constructors? (ideally I want to show the types inlined with my comments, but the way it is in the example image below is perfectly acceptable as well)

Microsoft Can do it

Did you ever figure this one out? – Zachary Dow Aug 10 '15 at 18:14 — Zachary Dow, Aug 10 '15 at 18:14

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 21 '20 at 06:41

Though this is a very old question, I've found myself today struggling with the exact same issue - and I regret to say that it doesn't look like there's a real solution.

using <see cref="Dictionary{int, string}"> will cause the following warning (at least on VS 2017):

CS1584 XML comment has syntactically incorrect cref attribute 'Dictionary{int, string}'

When hovering over the green squiggle, VS will show a tool-tip saying (among other things):

Type parameter declaration must be an identifier not a type. See also error CS0081.

The only solution I came up with is simply to add a couple of paragraphs specifying the types of TKey and TValue:

/// <summary>
/// Gets a <see cref="Dictionary{TKey, TValue}"/> that maps ints to strings.
/// <para>
/// TKey is <see cref="int"/>.
/// </para>
/// <para>
/// TValue is <see cref="string"/>.
/// </para>
/// </summary>
public Dictionary<int, string> Map {get;}

Intellisence will show it like this:

Gets a Dictionary<TKey, TValue> that maps ints to strings.
TKey is int.
TValue is string.

Better than nothing, I suppose, but doesn't really explain why it can't parse what was originally there. Annoying choices by Microsoft here. But what the # do we know? — ruffin, Jul 23 '20 at 21:05

Display XML comments generic params in Intellisence for static method

1 Answers1