How to iterate properties of two objects dynamically - c#

I have two object of same class, I want to update the p2 with fields which are are in Dirty list. So far I managed to write the following code but struggling to get the value of p1 properties. What object should I pass here as parameter to GetValue method.
Person p1 = new Person();
p1.FirstName = "Test";
Person p2 = new Person();
var allDirtyFields = p1.GetAllDirtyFields();
foreach (var dirtyField in allDirtyFields)
{
p2.GetType()
.GetProperty(dirtyField)
.SetValue(p1.GetType().GetProperty(dirtyField).GetValue());
}
_context.UpdateObject(p2);
_context.SaveChanges();
Thanks in advance.

You should try that:
foreach (var dirtyField in allDirtyFields)
{
var prop = p2.GetType().GetProperty(dirtyField);
prop.SetValue(p2, prop.GetValue(p1));
}
It is a better to store PropertyInfo instance in a variable, then trying to resolve it twice.

Did you know that you don't need to retrieve the property for each object?
Type metadata is common to any object of the whole type.
For example:
// Firstly, get dirty property informations!
IEnumerable<PropertyInfo> dirtyProperties = p2.GetType().GetProperties(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Public)
.Where
(
property => allDirtyFields.Any
(
field => property.Name == field
)
);
// Then, just iterate the whole property informations, but give the
// "obj" GetValue/SetValue first argument the references "p2" or "p1" as follows:
foreach(PropertyInfo dirtyProperty in dirtyProperties)
{
dirtyProperty.SetValue(p2, dirtyProperty.GetValue(p1));
}
Check that the first parameter of PropertyInfo.GetValue(...) and PropertyInfo.SetValue(...) is the object for which you want to get or set the value of the whole property.

In each iteration, you have to get a reference to the PropertyInfo. When you call it's SetValue method, you should pass in 2 parameters, the object for which you will set the property and the actual value you are setting. For the latter one, you should invoke the GetValue method on the same property, passing in the p1 object as parameter, i.e. the source for the value.
Try this:
foreach (var dirtyField in allDirtyFields)
{
var p = p2.GetType().GetProperty(dirtyField);
p.SetValue(p2, p.GetValue(p1));
}
I would recommend you to keep the dirtyField variables in a dictionary and retrieve the associated PropertyInfo object from this dictionary. It should be much faster.
Firstly, declare some static variable in your class:
static Dictionary<string, PropertyInfo>
personProps = new Dictionary<string, PropertyInfo>();
Then you may change your method to:
foreach (var dirtyField in allDirtyFields)
{
PropertyInfo p = null;
if (!personProps.ContainsKey(dirtyField))
{
p = p2.GetType().GetProperty(dirtyField);
personProps.Add(dirtyField, p);
}
else
{
p = personProps[dirtyField];
}
p.SetValue(p2, p.GetValue(p1));
}

You need to pass the instance from which you want to get the property value, like so:
p1.GetType().GetProperty(dirtyField).GetValue(p1, null)
The second parameter, can be used to retrieve a value at a certain index if the property type is indexed.

IIrc you send p1 being the instance that holds the value and null to indicate you're not searching for a specific index value.

Related

How to dynamically override all properties of dynamic object?

I have two dynamic objects and I'd want to overwrite values of object A with values of object B
The problem is that both are of type dynamic
I managed to extract names of the properties with
TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(oldObject);
but I'm not sure how can I read & set dynamic property of dynamic object
something like oldObject.GetType().GetProperty("Test") won't work since even GetType().GetProperties() return empty collection
Thanks in advance
Below way you can get all the properties and their values.
dynamic dynamicObj = //define it
object obj = dynamicObj;
string[] propertyNames = obj.GetType().GetProperties().Select(p => p.Name).ToArray();
foreach (var name in propertyNames)
{
object value = obj.GetType().GetProperty(name).GetValue(obj, null);
}
Use this for private fields.
obj.GetType().GetProperties(BindingFlags.NonPublic);

Get a list via reflection

I have some class that contains a List with a type of PropertyInfo:
public List<PropertyInfo> Properties {get; set;}
And I have an instance of that class, but it is not known which class it is at the run-time. So with that instance, in my case it's called P, I need to loop through the upper-mentioned list. Now I can get the value of the property by using:
var PropList = P.GetType().GetProperty("Properties").GetValue(this, null)
But if I try to loop through it:
foreach (var thisProp in PropList) - I get an error.
So, is there any other way to do this?
Thanks
You have to cast:
var PropList = P
.GetType()
.GetProperty("Properties")
.GetValue(P, null) as IEnumerable<PropertyInfo>; // notice "as ..."
// Since PropList is IEnumerable<T> you can loop over it
foreach (var thisProp in PropList) {
...
}
since GetValue(...) alone returns object.
After reviewing your code it's clear that
var PropList = P.GetType().GetProperty("Properties").GetValue(this, null)
does not return an ienumerable due to which you are getting and error. One possible solution To fix this issue you need to cast it to Ienumerable.
var PropList = P
.GetType()
.GetProperty("Properties")
.GetValue(this, null) as IEnumerable<PropertyInfo>;

How to use the properties of a passed list of known objects

this might be a simple fix but I can't seem to find anything about it. I am very new to C# if it's not obvious.
I'm passing a list of objects from my main method but I haven't been able to use the properties of the objects. I want to use a property called "Asset" This is my code:
private void GetDueDates(List<object> objects)
{
Type myType = objects.GetType();
IList<PropertyInfo> props = new List<PropertyInfo>(myType.GetProperties());
if(props.Contains(Asset)
{
doStuff();
}
}
I thought if I got the type of object then I could use the correct property but that didn't work. Do I even need to find which type it is?
Asset isn't a valid expression here, unless you've actually got a variable called Asset somewhere. You want to find out if the name of any property is Asset... and you want to do it on each object, not on the list itself:
foreach (var item in objects)
{
var props = item.GetType().GetProperties();
var assetProperty = props.FirstOrDefault(p => p.Name == "Asset");
if (assetProperty != null)
{
var value = assetProperty.GetValue(item, null);
// Do stuff...
}
}
Alternatively, if you're only looking for a public property, you can pass the name to GetProperty:
foreach (var item in objects)
{
var assetProperty = item.GetType().GetProperty("Asset");
if (assetProperty != null)
{
var value = assetProperty.GetValue(item, null);
// Do stuff...
}
}
Having said this, it would be cleaner if you had an interface or something similar:
var assetItems = objects.OfType<IHasAsset>();
foreach (var assetItem in assetItems)
{
var asset = assetItem.Asset;
...
}
If you know what type all of the objects in objects should be, then objects should be a list of that type, instead of a list of object (so List<MyType>). At this point, you can simply refer to objects[0].Asset, since all of the objects in the list are of type MyType.
If you still want objects to be a List<object>, then you'll have to typecast each of the objects in the list to a MyType in order to use the Asset property of the MyType class: ((MyType)objects[0]).Asset.
If you do this, and you aren't sure that all of the objects in the list are actually of type MyType, you need to check that:
if (objects[0] is MyType)
{
// do stuff with ((MyType)objects[0]).Asset
}

Calling empty default constructor of type

I'm trying to instantiate every property (of type JobVmInput) on my object.
This is my code so far:
var properties = this.GetType().GetProperties();
foreach (var p in properties)
{
var type = p.PropertyType;
if (type.IsSubclassOf(typeof(JobVmInput)))
{
var constructor = type.cons.GetConstructor(**what to input here**);
p.SetValue(p, constructor.Invoke(**what to input here**));
}
}
However I don't know what to input in the GetConstructor and constructor.Invoke methods. I've looked at the MSDN documentation but I'm quite uncertain in regards to what they accept. I just want to call the empty default constructor.
You can use:
var constructor = type.GetConstructor(Type.EmptyTypes);
p.SetValue(this, constructor.Invoke());
Or:
p.SetValue(this, Activator.CreateInstance(type));
Note that I have replaced first parameter to this since the SetValue method expects an instance of your object not the PropertyInfo

Looping though a dictionary containing objects

I have the following loop over a dictionary type collection
foreach(KeyValuePair<Vector2, Object> entry in v_map.map_set)
{
}
I want to access the object properties, but the expected syntax doesn't work. E.G:
foreach(KeyValuePair<Vector2, Object> entry in v_map.map_set)
{
Object ob = entry.Value;
ob.property;
}
Fails because C# can't find the property wanted.
So, how do I access the desired properties?
solution:
foreach(KeyValuePair<Vector2, Object> entry in v_map.map_set)
{
if (entry.Value is warehouse)
{
warehouse ob = (warehouse)entry.Value;
}
}
If you know the type of the objects that are in the KeyValuePair, you can cast it to that type, and you will be able to find the properties you need.
And if you have several different objects stored, you can check which type it is by using is.
Like so:
if(entry.Value is Foo)
{
Foo lFoo = (Foo)entry.Value;
}
else if(entry.Value is Bar)
{
Bar lBar = (Bar)entry.Value;
}
You can make use of Refection to get the value of proerty of the object.
something like this
PropertyInfo info2 = object.GetType().GetProperty("prpertyname");
Object val = info2.GetValue(object, null);
You need to cast entry.Value to the type you need. The Object type itself isn't going to expose the properties you want.
If you just need to access the values, and you know the expected type you can use
foreach(ExpectedType value in v_map.map_set.Values.OfType<ExpectedType>())
{
var property = value.Property;
}
where Property is a property on ExpectedType.
The problem is that you're using an object which isn't typed. So you're going to need to use reflection like this:
PropertyInfo pi = ob.GetType().GetProperty("PropertyName");
var val = pi.GetValue(ob, null);
Now, if the property isn't public then you'll need to employ something else like this:
PropertyInfo pi = ob.GetType().GetProperty("PropertyName", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
var val = pi.GetValue(ob, null);
Now, if this is actually a field you're trying to get to, you're going to need to do something different even yet:
FieldInfo fi = ob.GetType().GetField("fieldName");
var val = fi.GetValue(ob);
GetProperty method
BindingFlags enumeration
GetField method

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