CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#typescasting
Petr Peller
Petr Peller

Reputation: 8826

Moving implicitly typed variables to object initialiser

How can I modify the following code:

var people = new[] {
   new { name = "John", surname = "Smith" },
   new { name = "John", surname = "Doe" },
};

To not use the var keyword (so I can initialise the variable in an object initialiser) and still be able to access the elements like this?:

System.Console.WriteLine(people[0].surname); //John
System.Console.WriteLine(people[1].surname); //Doe

Upvotes: 0

Views: 59

Answers (4)

Darin Dimitrov
Darin Dimitrov

Reputation: 1038800

Define a model:

public class Person
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Surname { get; set; }
}

and then have a collection of this model:

List<Person> people = new List<Person>();
people.Add(new Person { Name = "John", Surname = "Smith" });
people.Add(new Person { Name = "John", Surname = "Doe" });

or:

var people = new List<Person> 
{ 
    new Person { Name = "John", Surname = "Smith" }, 
    new Person { Name = "John", Surname = "Doe" } 
};

and then you can still:

System.Console.WriteLine(people[0].Surname); //John
System.Console.WriteLine(people[1].Surname); //Doe

Upvotes: 5

Srikanth Venugopalan
Srikanth Venugopalan

Reputation: 9049

You could use 'dynamic'

dynamic people = new[] {
   new { name = "John", surname = "Smith" },
   new { name = "John", surname = "Doe" },
};

And then call it 

Console.WriteLine(people[0].name);

Note - Works on framework 4.0 onwards, also comes with the caveats mentioned already.

Upvotes: 1

Servy
Servy

Reputation: 203820

First you'll need to create a named type for that data:

public class Person
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Surname { get; set; }
}

Then use that type when creating the array:

People[] people;

//...

people = new People[]{
    new Person{ Name = "John", Surname = "Smith" },
    new Person{ Name = "John", Surname = "Doe" },
};

Upvotes: 2

Jon
Jon

Reputation: 437376

You cannot; you will have to define a proper class for these objects or reuse one (e.g. Tuple).

Technically the one-word change from var to dynamic will also do the trick, but of course this changes the essence of the member dramatically so it's not equivalent by any stretch of the imagination.

Upvotes: 5

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