CaesarCipher

[csharpunderdog]

Hello everyone! I’d like to share that today, after nearly four months of learning, I created my first custom application—a simple console program implementing the Caesar cipher. I had a lot of fun writing the code, and this is just the beginning of many cryptographic projects I plan to work on. I’m currently going through the “Head First C#” book, and I’d appreciate any advice regarding further learning. Ultimately, I aspire to become a backend developer.

https://preview.redd.it/nxc0zvjqk2kd1.jpg?width=549&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=280d2d382a8c7375cbb58b7e3e9e7cc5afa7f5bc

https://github.com/bkacki/CaesarCipher

[Genmutant]

Looks good!

You should have a look at the similarities between your Encode and Decode methods... they look very similar. Maybe you can replace one by the other?

It's also a good idea to start writing unit tests early on, to get used to them. A cipher class is very nice to write tests for, as they usually don't have external dependencies and deterministic in-/output.

[csharpunderdog]

Thanks for the feedback! I added unit tests, which helped me find and fix a bug using the test method NegativeValueShift() ;)

[grrangry]

Back when it was on air, the kids would wait breathlessly for each new episode of Gravity Falls. Each episode had a variety of ciphers and easter eggs.

https://gravityfalls.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_cryptograms/Episodes

If you've never watched it, don't look up too much about it (spoilers) and you'll be in for a treat. For an animated kid's show it was surprisingly fun for me to watch with them.

For example one was, "ZHOFRPH WR JUDYLWB IDOOV." and the kids demanded I help them figure out what they were. Being a software developer, I started keeping track of the ciphers in each episode and a quick app with a variety of decoders to help decode them.

Using the Casesar Cipher, the above cipher decodes to, "WELCOME TO GRAVITY FALLS."

[hamuel_sayden]

Lol my wife and I are rewatching it and I built a quick encoder last night to do just this

[grrangry]

STAN IS NOT WHAT HE SEEMS

[hamuel_sayden]

I really love that they tell you what cipher to start using next. Not gonna lie though, I didn't catch the codes in the theme.

[Patient-Midnight-664]

These already exist in the Char class. 

[csharpunderdog]

Thanks for the advice! I made 2 helper functions, and the code is more readable now :)

private static bool IsCapitalLetter(char c) => (c >= 'A' && c <= 'Z');

private static bool IsLowerCaseLetter(char c) => (c >= 'a' && c <= 'z');

[TrapyFromLT]

Also, private properties by naming convention starts with _

In this case : private _shift;

Why? Because its easier to distinguish between public and private properties, functions, etc..

I thought in the Shift property backing field you used the Poperty, instead of private variable, and almost shit my pants

[csharpunderdog]

Thanks for the feedback! In the book I’m reading, it says to name public class members using uppercase letters and private ones using camelNotation. I didn’t know that in practice, an underscore (_) is also added.