CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#oop
user2832281
user2832281

Reputation: 55

Separate class for list of objects?

I have a class in Active Record pattern. Lets call it "Car". So I have all my methods like insert, update etc but they work only on single object. What if I want to work on a list of these objects? Should I create a separate class lets say "CarCollection" that will be used to work on list of Car objects? Or should I create a method in my Car class that will return a list of Car object? I am a beginner in OOP but the second option (method that returns a list) seems kinda wrong.

Thanks for answers.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1744

Answers (3)

Gerhard Powell
Gerhard Powell

Reputation: 6185

It is standard practice to use Arrays, List or Dictionary. I like using Dictionaries because it is VERY quicker to link classes together with unique entries.

Create a class (Not a struct) called car.

You can use it in a Dictionary to enable Primary Unique key acceleration.

Public class Car
{
 public string id;
 public string name;
}

Create:

Dictionary<string, Car> carList = new Dictionary<string, Car>();

You can add this inside your method and pass it as parameters or create it global (according to your application)

To add:

Car car = new Car(){id = "1", Name="car1"};
carList[car.id] = car;

You can use Linq to link your classes together (almost like SQL): Basic LINQ Queries

Upvotes: 0

Joe Enos
Joe Enos

Reputation: 40431

Not a huge fan of the active record pattern, but if you're going this route, I'd expect the methods that return multiple cars would still live in your Car class - you wouldn't use a separate class.

That seems to be the way Rails does it.

Upvotes: 0

Jeroen Vannevel
Jeroen Vannevel

Reputation: 44438

As you say yourself: you'll have to work with a collection of cars. The question is in what class you're going to store this list.

When you're just using it as a standalone example you can store the collection in the class that holds your main method. In reality though you'll probably have a class Dealership or something similar that logically contains a list of cars.

There are other posibilities like classes specific for performing actions on a list of objects like a CarManager, but they are to be used with caution.

Upvotes: 2

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