Useful Extension Methods for Points and friends in WPF

Every once in a while you may be down to low-level element calculation and placement of elements in WPF. For this situation, I have found the following extension methods quite useful:

Translating a point

public static Point Translate(this Point p, Func<Point,Tuple<double,double>> translateFunction)
{
   var points = translateFunction(p);
   return new Point(p.X + points.Item1, p.Y + points.Item2);
}

public static Point Translate(this Point p, Vector translation)
{
   return p.Translate(po => Tuple.Create(translation.X, translation.Y));
}

public static Point Translate(this Point p, double xOffset, double yOffset)
{
   return p.Translate(po=>Tuple.Create(xOffset, yOffset));
}

public static Point TranslateX(this Point p, double xOffset)
{
   return p.Translate(xOffset, 0);
}

public static Point TranslateY(this Point p, double yOffset)
{
   return p.Translate(0, yOffset);
}

The first method is a low level application of a double-tuple as offset to a given point. All others use this method to create a new point from an old point and some additional info. Some examples:

var p = new Point(0,0);
p2 = p.TranslateY(10); //10 pixels to the right
p3 = p2.Translate(10); //New point at 10,10
p4 = p3.Translate(new Vector(10,10)); //New point at 20,20

Point Sources

A point source is an object that implements IEnumerable<Point>. One type of Point Source I have used is one that takes a seed point and to which you can provide a function how to get from previous to the next point. the following example uses this class to be able to iterate over equal-spaced points along the vertical axis:

var psource = new PointSource(new Point(10, 10), p => p.TranslateY(10));
var points = psource.Take(5).ToArray() // 10,10 ; 10,20 ; 10,30 ...

By entering the IEnumerable realm, you open your code to all the shiny LINQiness there is out there.

Arcs and the like

In WPF you can work with vectors and matrices. That gives you a nice base to implement a “Rotate” method:

public static Vector Rotate(this Vector origin, double angle)
{
    var cos = Math.Cos(angle);
    var sin = Math.Sin(angle);
    var rotationMatrix = new Matrix(cos, -sin, sin, cos, 0, 0);
    return origin * rotationMatrix;
}

In combination with a different point source that takes an IEnumerable<T> and provides a conversion to an IEnumerable<Point> you can create arcs and circles of points quite easily:

var radius = new Vector(0.0, 10.0);
var angleToRadians = Math.PI / 180.0;
var midpoint = new Point(20,20);

var translationVectors =
  from step in Enumerable.Range(0, 360)
  let angle = step * angleToRadians
  select radius.Rotate(angle);

var ps = new PointSource<Vector>(translationVectors, v => midpoint.Translate(v));

ps.Take(45); // Gives 45 points over 45 degrees, each with a radius of 10

Note that above, you could also get the functionality by using the LINQ-Select on the list of vectors. Also note the lazy nature of all involved items. If you only need 45 items, that’s all that is calculated.

I am just thinking of putting this kind of stuff into a small library to help dealing with that low-level stuff, which can be useful for Custom arrangers and the like. I am wondering what else could be in that library…or maybe there is already one?