dotnet new CLI to support counters in --name and --output

[vlada-shubina]

In some cases it is useful to use counters when creating the templates. Example: having the folder for tests with many projects, and next one should increment the previous.

Examples:

dotnet new console -o TestConsole??? -> TestConsole001, TestConsole002...

Consider what char to use as counter (?,#) etc.

[nohwnd]

I think you meant to use TestConsole instead of console for the output names:

dotnet new console -o TestConsole??? -> TestConsole001, TestConsole002...

and then hopefully if TestConsole002 is the highest number in my folder then dotnet new console -o TestConsole? -> TestConsole003.
And similarly if TestConsole62 is the highest number in my folder then dotnet new console -o TestConsole??? -> TestConsole063.
if TestConsole1002 is the highest number in my folder then dotnet new console -o TestConsole1? -> TestConsole003.

I would find this useful to have in my toys project folder just to be able to add new project folder easily without looking for the latest number. The 001 gives me the ability to have 999 projects that are ordered correctly in the Explorer, instead of having mstest1, mstest10, mstest 111, mstest2 etc.

This is how I do it in my powershell profile in mkcd function. it works almost exactly the same as requested here, but I assume you will want to check for ? at the end of the name, and throw error if the dir already exists (and possibly suggest ? there) instead of automatically incrementing.

function mkcd ($Path) {
    $Path = $ExecutionContext.SessionState.Path.GetUnresolvedProviderPathFromPSPath($Path)
    $name = $Path | Split-Path -Leaf
    $dir = $Path | Split-Path

    mkdir $dir -Force | Out-Null

    $padding = 0
    $prefix = $null

    # if we have ## pattern, make sure we pad the numbers to get 000,
    # and also make sure that any prefix number like 1 are considered so we avoid 
    # creating folder console11 when console1# is provided, console1 already exists
    if ($name -match "^(?<name>.*?)(?<prefix>\d*)(?<padding>#+)$") { 
        # build the number that is the lowest number we should use, and subtract 1
        # so it does not matter if the base number is existing directory or pattern 
        # we will always just increase it by 1 to get the actual final number
        $lowestDesiredNumber = $Matches.prefix + "0"*($Matches.padding.Length) - 1
        # when user requested console### we need to give them 001, not 1
        $padding = $Matches.padding.Length
        $name = $Matches.name
    }
    elseif ($name -match "^(?<name>.*?)(?<prefix>\d+)$") {
        $lowestDesiredNumber = $Matches.prefix - 1
        $padding = 0
        $name = $Matches.name
    }

    $dirs = Get-ChildItem -Directory "$dir/$name*" | Select -ExpandProperty Name | where { $_ -match "^$name\d+$" }

    # check if we found any dirs with numbers at the end, if not just create the dir
    # we could also check for $prefix -eq 0 , and that would create the dir if it did not exist
    # ignoring the existing number dirs e.g. console1 exists, console is requested, 
    # in the current approach we create console2, with checking prefix0 we create console
    if (-not $dirs -and -not (Test-Path $Path)) { 
        mkdir -Path $Path -Force | Out-Null
        cd $Path 
        return
    }
    
    $numbers = @($lowestDesiredNumber) + @( $dirs -replace "^$name(.*)$", '$1' )
    $highest = $numbers | sort { [int]$_ } | Select -Last 1
    $newNumber = [int]$highest+1

    $padding = $highest.Length, $padding | sort -Descending | select -First 1
    $newString = $newNumber.ToString("d$($padding)")

    $new = "$dir\$name$newString"
    mkdir -Force $new | Out-Null
    cd $new
}

gi \t\nums | rmdir -Recurse -Force
mkdir \t\nums -Force | Out-Null
cd \t\nums

mkcd \t\nums\console    # console
mkcd \t\nums\console    # console1
mkcd \t\nums\console    # console2
mkcd \t\nums\console### # console003
mkcd \t\nums\console### # console004
mkcd \t\nums\console### # console005

mkcd \t\nums\mstest1    # mstest1
mkcd \t\nums\mstest1    # mstest2
mkcd \t\nums\mstest##   # mstest03
mkcd \t\nums\mstest1#   # mstest10

mkcd \t\nums\xunit62    # xunit62
mkcd \t\nums\xunit      # xunit63
mkcd \t\nums\xunit####  # xunit0064

ls \t\nums