CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#
mrd
mrd

Reputation: 2183

How to generalize a method

I have a method which I want to generalize. I want to use following Deserialize function for any object type, as belew:

ExportDefinition _expDefinition = new ExportDefinition("a.ini");
DeliveryDefinition _delDefinition = new DeliveryDefinition("b.ini");

ExportDefinition expDef = Deserialize(_expDefinition);
DeliveryDefinition devDef = Deserialize(_delDefinition);


public SomeType Deserialize(SomeType?? tp)  // What should I use instead of SomeType?
{     
    try
    {
        FileStream readFileStream = new FileStream(definitionFile, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read);

        XmlSerializer serializerObj = new XmlSerializer(typeof(tp));
        tp loadedObj = (tp)serializerObj.Deserialize(readFileStream);
        readFileStream.Close();
     }
     catch (Exception ex)
     {
        throw new Exception(ex.Message);
     }

     return loadedObj;
}

Any ideas, how to achieve this?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 143

Answers (1)

ken2k
ken2k

Reputation: 49005

Use generics:

    public T Deserialize<T>(string filePath)
    {
        Stream stream = null;

        try
        {
            stream = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read);
            XmlSerializer serializerObj = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));

            return (T)serializerObj.Deserialize(stream);
        }
        catch (Exception)
        {
            throw;
        }
        finally
        {
            if (stream != null)
            {
                stream.Close();
            }
        }
    }

The non-generic version based on the useful comment of Marc Gravell:

public object Deserialize(string filePath, Type type)
{
    Stream stream = null;

    try
    {
        stream = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read);
        XmlSerializer serializerObj = new XmlSerializer(type);

        return serializerObj.Deserialize(stream);
    }
    catch (Exception)
    {
        // Put something useful here
        throw;
    }
    finally
    {
        if (stream != null)
        {
            stream.Close();
        }
    }
}

Upvotes: 6

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