#962 – A Color Selection Box Organized by Hue, part I

Here’s some code that generates a spread of different colors.  (We’ll later bind a ComboBox to the generated list of colors).

    public class ColorWithInfo : IComparable
    {
        public Color Color { get; set; }

        public string Info
        {
            get { return string.Format("{0}/{1}/{2}", Color.R, Color.G, Color.B); }
        }

        public string HueSatBright
        {
            get { return string.Format("{0}/{1}/{2}", Hue, Saturation, Brightness); }
        }

        public float Hue
        {
            get { return System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(Color.R, Color.G, Color.B).GetHue(); }
        }

        public float Saturation
        {
            get { return System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(Color.R, Color.G, Color.B).GetSaturation(); }
        }

        public float Brightness
        {
            get { return System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(Color.R, Color.G, Color.B).GetBrightness(); }
        }

        public int CompareTo(object obj)
        {
            ColorWithInfo cwiOther = obj as ColorWithInfo;

            // Sort by Hue, and then Saturation, and then Brightness
            if (this.Hue == cwiOther.Hue)
            {
                if (this.Saturation == cwiOther.Saturation)
                    return this.Brightness.CompareTo(cwiOther.Brightness);
                else
                    return this.Saturation.CompareTo(cwiOther.Saturation);
            }
            else
                return this.Hue.CompareTo(cwiOther.Hue);
        }
    }

    public static class ColorUtil
    {
        public static List<ColorWithInfo> GenerateColorList(int numValsPerColor)
        {
            List<ColorWithInfo> colorList = new List<ColorWithInfo>();

            // Create increment such that we start at 0, end at 255,
            // and have a total of numValsPerColor within that range.
            int delta = Convert.ToInt32(255.0 / ((double)numValsPerColor - 1.0));

            for (int r = 0; r < numValsPerColor; r++)
                for (int g = 0; g < numValsPerColor; g++)
                    for (int b = 0; b < numValsPerColor; b++)
                    {
                        ColorWithInfo cwi = new ColorWithInfo {
                            Color = Color.FromRgb((byte)(r * delta), (byte)(g * delta), (byte)(b * delta))};
                        colorList.Add(cwi);
                    }

            colorList.Sort();

            return colorList;
        }
    }