CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#asp.net-mvcentity-frameworkgenerics
WheretheresaWill
WheretheresaWill

Reputation: 6490

Using pluralised table names with C# generics in MVC

I'm trying to create a generic function that will be used to access multiple tables in my database. Is there a way to used pluralised (pluralized for the non-British!) table names with my generic function.

I may be thinking about this the wrong way (fairly new to generics/templates), but here's my code (Db is just a global var for access to my database):

public void UpdateMyTables<TEntity>() {
    // string plural = EntityObject<TEntity>.GetTableName(); // OR SOMETHING SIMILAR??
    IEnumerable<EntityType> entitiesToUpdate = Db.<TEntity>; // Obviously doesn't work because TEntity is not a table name, it's an object type

    foreach(<TEntity> e in entitiesToUpdate) {
        e.MyColumn = "A string that I'm updating all these fields with";
    }
}

So my question is: do I need to do some hackery to get the pluralised table name, or is there a function designed to return this (like GetTableName), or should I come at this from a different angle?

I also found a link that would help with the manual conversion here: Pluralising in mvc

Hugs and kisses and thanks in advance...

Upvotes: 0

Views: 203

Answers (1)

Tallmaris
Tallmaris

Reputation: 7590

You can use the .Set() method to get the IEnumerable:

IEnumerable<TEntity> entitiesToUpdate = Db.Set<TEntity>();

To get the Table Name you could possibly use the code from this blog post or this SO answer.

The foreach should be written:

foreach(TEntity e in entitiesToUpdate) { // you can use "var" here if you prefer
    e.MyColumn = "A string that I'm updating all these fields with";
}

Now, the problem is that TEntity does not have a .MyColumn property. If you are using this method with entities that inherit from a base class (called for example BaseEntity), which has that property, you can change the method declaration like this:

public void UpdateMyTables<TEntity>() where TEntity : BaseEntity {

This limits you to pass to call this method only with Entities that inherits from BaseEntity, but will give you access to the public properties and methods defined in BaseEntity.

To make the code above work, Base Entity should be declared like this:

public class BaseEntity { //of course it can be abstract or an interface...
    public string MyColumn { get; set; }
}

I hope I understood what you wanted to do. If you need further information let us know. :)

Upvotes: 2

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