Friday, June 13, 2025

🧠 Why You Should Use IConfiguration Instead of Hardcoding Settings in .NET



Published on: June 13, 2025

Category: Wednesday Wisdom

Tags: IConfiguration, .NET Core, AppSettings, Dependency Injection, Best Practices, .NET Dev Corner, Maintainability

🤔 What’s the Problem with Hardcoding?

Hardcoding configuration values directly into your codebase might seem quick and easy, but it leads to several problems:

  • ❌ Difficult to update settings across environments
  • ❌ Violates DRY principle
  • ❌ Breaks flexibility and scalability
  • ❌ Risk of leaking secrets into version control

var connectionString = "Server=localhost;Database=AppDb;User Id=admin;";

This is not only insecure but also hard to maintain.

✅ Enter IConfiguration – The Right Way

.NET Core provides the IConfiguration interface to abstract and centralize your application settings.

It supports:

  • appsettings.json
  • Environment variables
  • Command-line args
  • Azure Key Vault and more

🔧 How to Use IConfiguration in .NET Core

Step 1: Define your settings in appsettings.json


{
  "ConnectionStrings": {
    "Default": "Server=localhost;Database=AppDb;User Id=admin;"
  },
  "AppSettings": {
    "FeatureToggle": true,
    "LogLevel": "Debug"
  }
}

Step 2: Inject IConfiguration via constructor


public class MyService
{
    private readonly IConfiguration _config;

    public MyService(IConfiguration config)
    {
        _config = config;
    }

    public void PrintConnection()
    {
        var conn = _config.GetConnectionString("Default");
        Console.WriteLine(conn);
    }
}

🧪 You can also bind whole sections to POCOs for cleaner usage.

🧩 Binding POCOs from Configuration


public class AppSettings
{
    public bool FeatureToggle { get; set; }
    public string LogLevel { get; set; }
}



builder.Services.Configure<AppSettings>(
    builder.Configuration.GetSection("AppSettings"));

And inject with:


public class FeatureService
{
    private readonly AppSettings _settings;

    public FeatureService(IOptions<AppSettings> settings)
    {
        _settings = settings.Value;
    }

    public void CheckFeature()
    {
        if (_settings.FeatureToggle)
            Console.WriteLine("Feature is ON");
    }
}

🚀 Benefits of Using IConfiguration

Aspect Benefit
✅ Maintainability Centralized settings file
✅ Security Easily integrates with secrets/KeyVault
✅ Flexibility Supports environment overrides
✅ Testability Easy to mock config values in unit tests

📌 Final Thoughts

Whether you're building microservices or a single app, avoid hardcoded values. Use IConfiguration to keep your code clean, secure, and environment-ready.

Clean config = clean code.

📬 Stay Connected



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