We Keep Coding

changing class property value outside of the class

I have a class say ConstructionSet which is having name property having computed inside get method like as below
public class ConstructionSet
{
[Key]
public Guid Id { get; set; }
public string Name
{
get
{
string climateZonesCsv = (ClimateZones != null && ClimateZones.Any())
? $" - {string.Join(", ", ClimateZones.Select(a => a.Name))}"
: "";
var sourceOfData = !string.IsNullOrEmpty(SourceOfData?.Edition)
? $"{SourceOfData.Name}, {SourceOfData.Edition}"
: SourceOfData?.Name;
return $"{sourceOfData} - {ConstructionMassingType?.Name}{climateZonesCsv}";
}
set { }
}
.......
.......
}
and then I am doing some operations like cloning this ConstructionSet object and appending some text like "copy" to the name property of ConstructionSet after deepclone and it is looks like as below
var targetDhpConstructionSets = sourceDhpConstructionSets.ConvertAll(
dhpcs =>
{
var newDhpConstructionSet = new DesignHubProjectConstructionSet(dhpcs);
var clone = DeepCloner.Clone(dhpcs.SectionObjectRaw);
clone.Name += " (Copy)";
newDhpConstructionSet.AddPatch(employeeContext, clone);
newDhpConstructionSet.IsDefault = dhpcs.IsDefault;
newDhpConstructionSet.Warnings = dhpcs.Warnings;
return newDhpConstructionSet;
});
and below is the image where it shows dhpcs.SectionObjectRaw is indeed a ConstructionSet class object and if i observe the clone object name property value after this line clone.Name += " (Copy)"; the Copy text is not appended.
Could any one please let me know why i am not seeing the appended values to the name property of ConstructionSet
many thanks in advance

because your setter does literally nothing:
set { }
Since your getter obtains several pieces of information on-the-fly, it's not obvious how to change your design to add on arbitrary text to what the getter provides. You could have a "suffix" property that gets appended to the strings that are currently returned, for example. Or have a backing field that the getter populates if it is null, then have the setter change the value of the backing field.
Based on your comments I would probably go with a backing field:
private string _Name;
public string Name
{
get
{
if(this._Name == null) {
string climateZonesCsv = (ClimateZones != null && ClimateZones.Any())
? $" - {string.Join(", ", ClimateZones.Select(a => a.Name))}"
: "";
var sourceOfData = !string.IsNullOrEmpty(SourceOfData?.Edition)
? $"{SourceOfData.Name}, {SourceOfData.Edition}"
: SourceOfData?.Name;
_Name = $"{sourceOfData} - {ConstructionMassingType?.Name}{climateZonesCsv}";
}
return _Name
}
set { _Name = value }
}

Assign bool value to a property when name of that property is present in another array

This is best I could make the question statement. Please be kind.
Here is the situation:
I have a string "InputValues" which contains values in comma seperated format:
chkAwareness1,chkAwareness2,chkAwareness6,chkAwareness9,chkAwareness13...
I need to fill an object with bool value if the name matches with what I have in above string variable.
example:
if InputValues contains "chkAwareness1" then "public bool chkAwareness1" should set to true, otherwise false.
public class SurveyCheckBox
{
public bool chkAwareness1 { get; set; }
public bool chkAwareness2 { get; set; }
public bool chkAwareness3 { get; set; }
public bool chkAwareness4 { get; set; }
public bool chkAwareness5 { get; set; }
public bool chkAwareness6 { get; set; }
public bool chkAwareness7 { get; set; }
.
.
.
}
public void createObjectSurveyCheckBox(string InputValues)
{
string[] ChkValues = InputValues.Split(',');
SurveyCheckBox surveyChkBoxObj = new SurveyCheckBox();
for (int i = 0; i < NumberOfPropertyInSurveyCheckBox ;i++ )
{
// typeof(SurveyCheckBox).GetProperties()[i].Name
}
}
I searched and I found GetProperties method through which I can get the name of property, but I am unable to figure out the logic.. how to search through the values and assign them to bool properties.
Please help.

You're very close. You just need to change your loop, really. The whole method should look like this:
public void CreateObjectSurveyCheckBox(string inputValues)
{
string[] chkValues = inputValues.Split(',');
SurveyCheckBox surveyChkBoxObj = new SurveyCheckBox();
foreach (string value in chkValues)
{
PropertyInfo propInfo = typeof(SurveyCheckBox).GetProperty(value);
if (propInfo != null)
propInfo.SetValue(surveyChkBoxObj, true);
}
}
P.S. You'll notice I took the liberty of changing your capitalization to something much more standard. If you use capitalization like you had, you're likely to get lynched.

I agree with Tim; I would not use something like this in production code.
public void createObjectSurveyCheckBox(string InputValues)
{
var instance = new SurveyCheckBox();
foreach (var property in typeof(SurveyCheckBox).GetProperties().Where(x => x.Name.Contains("chkAwareness")))
{
if (InputValues.Contains(property.Name))
property.SetValue(instance, true);
}
}

I would write the loop from the other direction, from 0 to MaxchkAwareness;
Sort the input first, before going into the loop.
You would also need an index to the next item in your input array (ChkValues), lets call that chkValueIndex;
If the next item in your input array, ChkValues[chkValueIndex], is "chkAwareness"+i.ToString()
then your property is true, and you increment your array pointer .
otherwise your property is false.
But I think you have to use reflection to set the properties in a loop like that, something like this:
Getting a property reference using reflection
I am sure there are better ways to restructure this and do it entirely different, but it sounds to me like you are trying to do the best you can with the system that was given you.

You can try this:
public static void createObjectSurveyCheckBox(string InputValues)
{
string[] ChkValues = InputValues.Split(',');
SurveyCheckBox surveyChkBoxObj = new SurveyCheckBox();
foreach (var prop in typeof(SurveyCheckBox).GetProperties())
{
if (ChkValues.Contains(prop.Name))
prop.SetValue(surveyChkBoxObj, true);
}
}

Adding a bool for each property

I'm building a c# class that works with two different data sources. It will load a data source and take a configuration set from a function. Then I want to do several tasks on all properties within the object.
for example.
public String StreetAddress
{
get { return _streetAddress; }
set
{
if (value.Length <= 64)
_streetAddress = value;
else
_streetAddress = value.Substring(0, 1024).Trim();
}
}
public String City
{
get { return _city; }
set
{
if (value.Length <= 128)
_city = value;
else
_city = value.Substring(0, 128).Trim();
}
}
public String State
{
get { return _state; }
set
{
if (value.Length <= 128)
_state = value;
else
_state = value.Substring(0, 128).Trim();
}
}
So that holds the data from one side. I was hoping to be able to store and set a change flag on each property. So if we take State for example. If the person is moved from Texas to Illinois I want to set a bool within that property to note the change then be able to loop over all changes before saving the object to the DB. But I don't see any way to assign another state variable within that property. Is the best way to write another object on top of this to control it or is there another more creative way to store multiple strings within the one property?

If you'd like an OOP way of doing the thing, you can:
Define an interface and a class for holding your property, such as:
interface IPropertySlot
{
bool IsDirty { get; }
void ResetIsDirty();
object UntypedValue { get; }
}
class PropertySlot<T>:IPropertySlot
{
public T Value { get; private set; }
public bool SetValue(T value)
{
if (!Equals(_value, Value))
{
Value = value;
IsDirty = true;
return true;
}
return false;
}
public bool IsDirty { get; private set; }
public void ResetIsDirty()
{
IsDirty = false;
}
public object UntypedValue
{
get { return Value; }
}
}
Store your properties inside your class in a dictionary from String (for name of property) to IPropertySlot and get/set them through a pair of methods:
void SetProperty<T>(string name, T value)
{
IPropertySlot property;
if (!_properties.TryGetValue(name, out property))
{
property = new PropertySlot<T>();
_properties[name] = property;
}
((PropertySlot<T>)property) .SetValue(value);
}
T GetProperty<T>(string name)
{
IPropertySlot property;
if (!_properties.TryGetValue(name, out property))
{
property = new PropertySlot<T>();
_properties[name] = property;
}
return ((PropertySlot<T>)property).Value;
}
Finding the changed properties later is just a matter of going over the _properties.Values and finding which of them are IsDirty.
This approach also gives you a way to add more functionality to your properties in an OO manner (such as raising PropertyChanged/PropertyChanging events, mapping it to DB fields, etc.).

In such a situation I'd prefer an approach external to the Dto implementation.
Implement some unit that would take two instances of a class, and determine all the differences.
Map each property to compare:
static PropertyManager<Dto> manager = new PropertyManager<Dto>()
.Map(x => x.City)
.Map(x => x.StreetAddress);
Use two instances to compute difference:
var a = new Dto{ StreetAddress = "Foo", City = "Bar" };
var b = new Dto{ StreetAddress = "Foo", City = "Baz" };
var differences = manager.ComputeDifferences(a,b).ToList();
if( differences.Any() )
{
Console.WriteLine("Instances differ");
}
foreach (var diff in differences)
{
Console.WriteLine(diff);
}
This sample code prints out:
Instances differ
x.City
Here is a complete code example:
https://dotnetfiddle.net/4sNeoN

Implementing a find system for a ListView in C#

I am creating an application in C# using a ListView control that lets you create lists. I am implementing a Find function using the Find() method. Here’s my code:
if (findTextBox.Text != "")
{
ListViewItem[] lviFoundList = listItemsList.Items.Find(findTextBox.Text, true);
amountFound.Text = "Found " + Convert.ToString(lviFoundList.Count());
if (lviFoundList.Count() != 0)
{
int firstItemIndex = lviFoundList[0].Index;
listItemsList.Items[firstItemIndex].Selected = true;
}
}
else
{
amountFound.Text = "Found 0";
}
However, it doesn’t return any matches. What am I doing wrong?

Find method requires your listView item's Name, did you set your list view item's name property? If you want to search for text you can use this:
var lviFoundList = new List<ListViewItem>();
foreach(var item in listItemsList.Items)
{
if(item.Text == findTextBox.Text) lviFoundList.Add(item);
}

The Find() Method looks at the ListViewItem's name, not it's text.
You want this instead:
if (findTextBox.Text != "")
{
List<ListViewItem> items = new List<ListViewItems>();
foreach ListViewItem lvi in listItemsList.Items
{
if (lvi.Text == findTextBox.Text)
items.Add(lvi);
}
amountFound.Text = "Found " + Convert.ToString(lviFoundList.Count());
if(lviFoundList.Count() != 0)
{
int firstItemIndex = lviFoundList[0].Index;
listItemsList.Items[firstItemIndex].Selected = true;
}
}
else
{
amountFound.Text = "Found 0";
}

Honestly, the ListView.Find() method is rather poor and it's much easier to roll your own with LINQ. Think about what Find really is trying to accomplish -- a specific filtering, typically one record.
The first step, if you haven't already, would be to keep a cached collection of your data objects. Let's assume you have a list of Person classes like so:
class Person
{
public string FirstName { get; set; }
public string LastName { get; set; }
public string JobTitle { get; set; }
public DateTime DateOfBirth { get; set; }
}
Then in your MainForm you have a ListView and a member variable people defined as a List<Person>. Your ListView.Items should reflect the contents of this List<Person>.
So now maybe you want to find a person based on their FirstName or LastName, right? You could use LINQ in a function like so:
int FindFirstIndexOfPersonNamed(string firstOrLastName)
{
// WARNING: This is case sensitive!
return people.FindIndex(p => p.FirstName.Contains(firstOrLastName) || p.LastName.Contains(firstOrLastName));
}
Since your ListView.Items should be reflecting your List<Person> the index should be identical:
// Get the found item and do whatever you want with it...
var selectedListViewItem = listView.Items[index];

Storing/restoring values from a class to/from a list of property names and values

I am not sure what the best and simplest way to do this, so any advice is appreciated.
I want to get all the fields on any/all/single domain entity class and add prefix/remove prefix dynamically when calling a particular method.
For example, I have entities such as:
public class Shop
{
public string TypeOfShop{get;set}
public string OwnerName {get;set}
public string Address {get;set}
}
public class Garage
{
public string Company {get;set}
public string Name {get;set}
public string Address {get;set}
}
and so on...
I want to get a list of the properties with a prefix:
public Class Simple
{
public class Prop
{
public string Name{get;set;}
public string Value{get;set;}
}
public ICollection list = new List<Prop>();
//set all prop
public void GetPropertiesWithPrefix(Garage mygarage, string prefix)
{
list.Add(new Prop{Name = prefix + "_Company", Value = mygarage.Company});
//so on... upto 50 props...
}
}
//to get this list I can simple call the list property on the Simple class
When reading each field I am using a switch statement and setting the value.
//Note I return a collection of Prop that have new values set within the view,lets say
//this is a result returned from a controller with the existing prop names and new values...
public MyGarage SetValuesForGarage(MyGarage mygarage, string prefix, ICollection<Prop> _props)
{
foreach (var item in _prop)
{
switch(item.Name)
{
case prefix + "Company":
mygarage.Company = item.Value;
break;
//so on for each property...
}
}
}
Is there a better, simpler or more elegant way to do this with linq or otherwise?

You could store props in a dictionary, then have:
mygarage.Company = _props[prefix + "_Company"];
mygarage.Address = _props[prefix + "_Address"];
//And so on...
in your SetValuesForGarage method instead of a loop with a switch inside.
EDIT
For more info on using Dictionary see MSDN.
You can define list something like:
Dictionary<string, string> list = new Dictionary<string, string>();
And have something like the following in your GetPropertiesWithPrefix method:
list.Add(prefix + "_Company", mygarage.Company);
list.Add(prefix + "_Address", mygarage.Address);
//And so on...
This would eliminate your Prop class.

Maybe the following method works for you. It takes any object, looks up its properties and returns a list with your Prop objects, each for every property.
public class PropertyReader
{
public static List<Prop> GetPropertiesWithPrefix(object obj, string prefix)
{
if (obj == null)
{
return new List<Prop>();
}
var allProps = from propInfo
in obj.GetType().GetProperties()
select new Prop()
{
Name = prefix + propInfo.Name,
Value = propInfo.GetValue(obj, null) as string
};
return allProps.ToList();
}
}