CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#c#-4.0
Siddam Shetty Rahul
Siddam Shetty Rahul

Reputation: 7

Need explanation for some code.

What does 

public object this[string name]

do 

class ObjectWithProperties
{
    Dictionary<string, object> properties = new Dictionary<string, object>();

    public object this[string name]
    {
        get
        {
            if (properties.ContainsKey(name))
            {
                return properties[name];
            }
            return null;
        }
        set
        {
            properties[name] = value;
        }
    }
}

Upvotes: 0

Views: 100

Answers (1)

Rich
Rich

Reputation: 141

You will be able to reference the values in your dictionary directly from your object using indexes (ie, no property name)

In your case it would be

var foo = new ObjectWithProperties();
foo["bar"] = 1;
foo["kwyjibo"] = "Hello world!"

// And you can retrieve them in the same manner...

var x = foo["bar"];  // returns 1

MSDN guide: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/2549tw02.aspx

Basic tutorial: http://www.tutorialspoint.com/csharp/csharp_indexers.htm

Edit to answer question in comment:

This is equivalent to doing something like the following:

class ObjectWithProperties
{
    public Dictionary<string, object> Properties { get; set; }

    public ObjectWithProperties()
    {
        Properties = new Dictionary<string, object>();
    }
}

// instantiate in your other class / app / whatever
var objWithProperties = new ObjectWithProperties();
// set
objWithProperties.Properties["foo"] = "bar";
// get
var myFooObj = objWithProperties.Properties["foo"];   // myFooObj = "bar"

Upvotes: 6

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