CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#object
Oh hi Mark
Oh hi Mark

Reputation: 203

"Shapeless" objects in c#

I am receiving objects using wcf, each object is different and I would like to instead of creating an object for each received object so I can manipulate it, to pass/copy each received object to only one shapeless object each time. It there such a thing?

A pseudo-code example: 

Shapeless_object = received_obj_A;
if (Shapeless_object.name = "I_dont_know") {
   Shapeless_object.count++;
}

Shapeless_object = received_obj_B;
if (Shapeless_object.name = "I_dont_know_too") {
   Shapeless_object.count--;
   Shapeless_object.age = 20;
}

received_obj_A and B are different with different parameters but passed in a single object. I hope I made my question as clear as possible.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 211

Answers (3)

anon
anon

Reputation: 192

Do you mean this?

var a = received_obj_A;
if (a.name = "I_dont_know") {
   Shapeless_object.count++;
}

var b = received_obj_B;
if (b.name = "I_dont_know_too") {
   Shapeless_object.count--;
   Shapeless_object.age = 20;
}

Dont use the base object here, because you need to check for the instance and try to cast it.

Don't do:

object a = received_obj_A; // Here you need to cast

if (a.name = "I_dont_know") {
   Shapeless_object.count++;
}

object b = received_obj_B; // Here you need to cast
if (b.name = "I_dont_know_too") {
   Shapeless_object.count--;
   Shapeless_object.age = 20;
}

Upvotes: 0

Manuel Schweigert
Manuel Schweigert

Reputation: 4974

You could cast them to dynamic, but it would be a performance hit.

dynamic shapeless = received_obj_A;
if (shapeless .name = "I_dont_know") {
   shapeless.count++;
}

shapeless  = received_obj_B;
if (shapeless.name = "I_dont_know_too") {
   shapeless.count--;
   shapeless.age = 20;
}

Note that you do lose static typing, obviously.

Upvotes: 1

Marc Gravell
Marc Gravell

Reputation: 1063413

You mention WCF origins: it is easy to add interfaces to WCF types via partial class: just declare the common interface - perhaps:

interface ICommon {
    string name {get;}
    // ...
}

Then tell the compiler to infer the interface for each of your WCF types:

namespace TheWcfNamespace {
    partial class SomeWcfType : ICommon {}
    partial class AnotherWcfType : ICommon {}
    partial class WhateverWcfType : ICommon {}
}

As long as SomeWcfType etc all have the members to implement the interface, you can now treat all your WCF objects as ICommon.

Alternatively, you might be able to do what you want here via dynamic - just replace Shapeless_object with dynamic - however, that seems an abuse of the intent. A more classic implementation here would be interfaces:

if(obj is IDontKnow) {
   // TODO: access as an IDontKnow
}

if (obj is IDontKnowToo) {
    // TODO: access as an IDontKnowToo
}

You can of course combine this with the partial class approach mentioned above.

Upvotes: 3

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