How to detect if a property exists on an ExpandoObject? - c#

In javascript you can detect if a property is defined by using the undefined keyword:
if( typeof data.myProperty == "undefined" ) ...
How would you do this in C# using the dynamic keyword with an ExpandoObject and without throwing an exception?

According to MSDN the declaration shows it is implementing IDictionary:
public sealed class ExpandoObject : IDynamicMetaObjectProvider,
IDictionary<string, Object>, ICollection<KeyValuePair<string, Object>>,
IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<string, Object>>, IEnumerable, INotifyPropertyChanged
You can use this to see if a member is defined:
var expandoObject = ...;
if(((IDictionary<String, object>)expandoObject).ContainsKey("SomeMember")) {
// expandoObject.SomeMember exists.
}

An important distinction needs to be made here.
Most of the answers here are specific to the ExpandoObject which is mentioned in the question. But a common usage (and reason to land on this question when searching) is when using the ASP.Net MVC ViewBag. That's a custom implementation/subclass of DynamicObject, which won't throw an Exception when you check any arbitrary property name for null. Suppose you might declare a property like:
#{
ViewBag.EnableThinger = true;
}
Then suppose you wanted to check its value, and whether it's even set - whether it exists. The following is valid, will compile, won't throw any exceptions, and gives you the right answer:
if (ViewBag.EnableThinger != null && ViewBag.EnableThinger)
{
// Do some stuff when EnableThinger is true
}
Now get rid of the declaration of EnableThinger. Same code compiles and runs properly. No need for reflection.
Unlike ViewBag, ExpandoObject will throw if you check for null on a property that doesn't exist. In order to get MVC ViewBag's gentler functionality out of your dynamic objects, you'll need to use an implementation of dynamic that doesn't throw.
You could simply use the exact implementation in MVC ViewBag:
. . .
public override bool TryGetMember(GetMemberBinder binder, out object result)
{
result = ViewData[binder.Name];
// since ViewDataDictionary always returns a result even if the key does not exist, always return true
return true;
}
. . .
https://github.com/ASP-NET-MVC/aspnetwebstack/blob/master/src/System.Web.Mvc/DynamicViewDataDictionary.cs
You can see it being tied into MVC Views here, in MVC ViewPage:
http://aspnetwebstack.codeplex.com/SourceControl/latest#src/System.Web.Mvc/ViewPage.cs
The key to DynamicViewDataDictionary's graceful behavior is the Dictionary implementation on ViewDataDictionary, here:
public object this[string key]
{
get
{
object value;
_innerDictionary.TryGetValue(key, out value);
return value;
}
set { _innerDictionary[key] = value; }
}
https://github.com/ASP-NET-MVC/aspnetwebstack/blob/master/src/System.Web.Mvc/ViewDataDictionary.cs
In other words, it always returns a value for all keys, regardless of what's in it - it simply returns null when nothing's there. But, ViewDataDictionary has the burden of being tied to MVC's Model, so it's better to strip out just the graceful dictionary parts for use outside MVC Views.
It's too long to really post all the guts here - most of it just implementing IDictionary - but here's a dynamic object (class DDict) that doesn't throw for null checks on properties that haven't been declared, on Github:
https://github.com/b9chris/GracefulDynamicDictionary
If you just want to add it to your project via NuGet, its name is GracefulDynamicDictionary.

I wanted to create an extension method so I could do something like:
dynamic myDynamicObject;
myDynamicObject.propertyName = "value";
if (myDynamicObject.HasProperty("propertyName"))
{
//...
}
... but you can't create extensions on ExpandoObject according to the C# 5 documentation (more info here).
So I ended up creating a class helper:
public static class ExpandoObjectHelper
{
public static bool HasProperty(ExpandoObject obj, string propertyName)
{
return obj != null && ((IDictionary<String, object>)obj).ContainsKey(propertyName);
}
}
To use it:
// If the 'MyProperty' property exists...
if (ExpandoObjectHelper.HasProperty(obj, "MyProperty"))
{
...
}

UPDATED: You can use delegates and try to get a value from the dynamic object property if it exists. If there is no property, simply catch the exception and return false.
Take a look, it works fine for me:
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
dynamic userDynamic = new JsonUser();
Console.WriteLine(IsPropertyExist(() => userDynamic.first_name));
Console.WriteLine(IsPropertyExist(() => userDynamic.address));
Console.WriteLine(IsPropertyExist(() => userDynamic.last_name));
}
class JsonUser
{
public string first_name { get; set; }
public string address
{
get
{
throw new InvalidOperationException("Cannot read property value");
}
}
}
static bool IsPropertyExist(GetValueDelegate getValueMethod)
{
try
{
//we're not interesting in the return value. What we need to know is whether an exception occurred or not
getValueMethod();
return true;
}
catch (RuntimeBinderException)
{
// RuntimeBinderException occurred during accessing the property
// and it means there is no such property
return false;
}
catch
{
//property exists, but an exception occurred during getting of a value
return true;
}
}
delegate string GetValueDelegate();
}
The output of the code is the following:
True
True
False

I answered a very similar question recently: How do I reflect over the members of dynamic object?
Shortly, ExpandoObject is not the only dynamic object you might get. Reflection would work for static types (types that do not implement IDynamicMetaObjectProvider). For types that do implement this interface, reflection is basically useless. For ExpandoObject, you can simply check whether the property is defined as a key in the underlying dictionary. For other implementations, it might be challenging and sometimes the only way is to work with exceptions. For details, follow the link above.

Why you do not want to use Reflection to get set of type properyes? Like this
dynamic v = new Foo();
Type t = v.GetType();
System.Reflection.PropertyInfo[] pInfo = t.GetProperties();
if (Array.Find<System.Reflection.PropertyInfo>(pInfo, p => { return p.Name == "PropName"; }). GetValue(v, null) != null))
{
//PropName initialized
}

This extension method checks for the existence of a property and then returns the value or null. This is useful if you do not want your applications to throw unnecessary exceptions, at least ones you can help.
public static object Value(this ExpandoObject expando, string name)
{
var expandoDic = (IDictionary<string, object>)expando;
return expandoDic.ContainsKey(name) ? expandoDic[name] : null;
}
If can be used as such :
// lookup is type 'ExpandoObject'
object value = lookup.Value("MyProperty");
or if your local variable is 'dynamic' you will have to cast it to ExpandoObject first.
// lookup is type 'dynamic'
object value = ((ExpandoObject)lookup).Value("PropertyBeingTested");

Depending on your use case, if null can be considered as being the same as undefined, you can turn your ExpandoObject into a DynamicJsonObject.
dynamic x = new System.Web.Helpers.DynamicJsonObject(new ExpandoObject());
x.a = 1;
x.b = 2.50;
Console.WriteLine("a is " + (x.a ?? "undefined"));
Console.WriteLine("b is " + (x.b ?? "undefined"));
Console.WriteLine("c is " + (x.c ?? "undefined"));
Output:
a is 1
b is 2.5
c is undefined

(authorDynamic as ExpandoObject).Any(pair => pair.Key == "YourProp");

Hey guys stop using Reflection for everything it costs a lots of CPU cycles.
Here is the solution:
public class DynamicDictionary : DynamicObject
{
Dictionary<string, object> dictionary = new Dictionary<string, object>();
public int Count
{
get
{
return dictionary.Count;
}
}
public override bool TryGetMember(GetMemberBinder binder, out object result)
{
string name = binder.Name;
if (!dictionary.TryGetValue(binder.Name, out result))
result = "undefined";
return true;
}
public override bool TrySetMember(SetMemberBinder binder, object value)
{
dictionary[binder.Name] = value;
return true;
}
}

Try this one
public bool PropertyExist(object obj, string propertyName)
{
return obj.GetType().GetProperty(propertyName) != null;
}

Related

Convert object with list back to a class and find specific data from the object

I would like to create a function allow to get data from any classes with provide a key value, but I am stack when converting object back to the class. The following is my code.
var ListABC = new List<ABC>();
GetData(ListABC, typeof(ABC), "A1");
Here is my Function :-
Public void GetData(object obj, Type objType, string find)
{
// Note! not able to using (List<ABC>)obj, because you never know what tyoe of object will be pass in.
// How to get list data of "A1" after List ABC as a object? assume this function allow any classes.
}
Here is my class :-
public class ABC {
protected int _A1;
protected bool _B1;
protected string _C1;
public int A1
{
get
{
return this._A1;
}
set
{
this._A1 = value;
}
}
public bool B1
{
get
{
return this._B1;
}
set
{
this._B1 = value;
}
}
public string C1
{
get
{
return this._C1;
}
set
{
this._C1 = value;
}
}
}
As Daniel said, make GetData generic:
public void GetData<T>(IList<T> obj, string find)
{
}
and then call it like so:
GetData(ListABC, "A1");
You can even enforce constraints on T, for example:
public void GetData<T>(IList<T> obj, string find)
where T: IConvertible
{
}
If you don't want to implement an interface on the list item objects you will pass here, you could also pass a func:
public void GetData<T>(IList<T> obj, Func<T, string> idFunc, string find)
{
var matchingItems = obj.Where(o => idFunc(o) == find);
}
and call it like so:
GetData(ListABC, i => i.A1, "A1");
Edit: Do you just want ListABC.Select(i => i.A1) ?
If you want minimum change in your code. you can do it like below.
Although, making method generic is good idea, but as you are already passing type of ABC to the method, you are not required to make method generic.
here type you have passed is suggesting which type of data list is holding
Assumptions: you method's return type is void (so assuming you don't want anything to be returned. and also you are passing only one string find as a property to get so at a time you want data of only specified property.
if your requirements are simpler and scope of data is limited in your method only, you can always choose simpler way (which is easily understandable and readable)
try something like below,
public void GetData(object obj, Type objType, string find)
{
//as you are passing type of list here, you can use it.
if(objType == typeof(ABC))
{
List<ABC> list = (List<ABC>)obj;
//now use it.
//here we are getting the property with name as per find (name we passed in method)
PropertyInfo prop = objType.GetProperty(find);
//if there is no property with specified name, PropertyInfo object (prop) will be null
if (prop != null)
{
if (prop.PropertyType == typeof(int))
{
foreach (ABC abcObj in list)
{
object a1Data = prop.GetValue(abcObj);
int data = (int)a1Data;
}
}
}
}
}
Note: drawback of this approach is, you need to handle cases of different Types in this method. So if your method may accept big variety of type, you may not want to go with this idea.

Store type information with DynamicObject

I'm trying to design a process for doing extract transform load operations. I want to use the ExpandoObject in my pipeline to allow me to easily add columns to my data stream. Basically I read data from some kind of datasource cast it a dynamic and yield return it to a pipeline of transforms that add properties to it either based on existing properties or something else then stream it into a database.
The issue I have is that I need type information for all the properties I add to my expando object even if I add a Nullable type. This is lost if the Nullable type is null because of the boxing of the value. I want the type information so that at the end of my pipeline I can implement a datareader over my enumeration of ExpandoObjects and stream the data into a database.
I had hoped the SetMemberBinder.ReturnType property might help me but it seems to return an object.
here's some sample code:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Dynamic;
using Xunit
namespace Whanger
{
public class MyExpando : DynamicObject
{
Dictionary<string, object> properties = new Dictionary<string, object>();
Dictionary<string, Type> propertyTypes = new Dictionary<string, Type>();
public Dictionary<string, Type> Types
{
get
{
return propertyTypes;
}
}
public Dictionary<string, object> Values
{
get
{
return properties;
}
}
public override bool TryGetMember(GetMemberBinder binder, out object result)
{
if (properties.ContainsKey(binder.Name))
{
result = properties[binder.Name];
return true;
}
else
{
result = null;
return false;
}
}
public override bool TrySetMember(SetMemberBinder binder, object value)
{
properties[binder.Name] = value;
propertyTypes[binder.Name] = binder.ReturnType;//always object :(
return true;
}
public override bool TryInvokeMember(InvokeMemberBinder binder, object[] args, out object result)
{
dynamic method = properties[binder.Name];
result = method(args[0].ToString(), args[1].ToString());
return true;
}
}
public class MyExpandoTests
{
[Fact]
public void CanAddDynamicMembers()
{
dynamic obj = new MyExpando();
obj.Name = "Wibble";
obj.Value = 2;
Assert.Equal(obj.Name, "Wibble");
Assert.Equal(obj.Value, 2);
}
[Fact]
public void CanMaintainType()
{
dynamic obj = new MyExpando();
int? nullableInt = null;
obj.NullInt = nullableInt;
obj.Name = "Wibble";
Assert.Equal(obj.Name, "Wibble");
Assert.Null(obj.NullInt);
//fails
Assert.Equal(typeof(int?), ((MyExpando)obj).Types["NullInt"]);
}
}
}
Is there a way to find out the type from TrySetMember? I wonder if there's some way to use some expression tree magic of something?
If anyone has any great ideas I'd love to hear them. It all works well except for the nullable types but they are key for database operations.
Thanks
Yes, it is possible.
I've done some research whether the type information is stored somewhere and I've discovered that during the time of setting the member, there is a Func<System.Runtime.CompilerServices.CallSite,object,int?,object> object being used. This is probably used to store the binding for later uses.
However, this cache is actually passed to the binder: private CallSiteBinder.Cache field. It contains an IDictionary<Type,object> that contains a type of the cache delegate as a key and the delegate itself. So, by examining the generic arguments for the delegate type, you can obtain the type of the expression that was used in the assignment.
Complete method:
private static readonly FieldInfo CallSiteBinder_Cache = typeof(CallSiteBinder).GetField("Cache", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);
private static Type BindingType(CallSiteBinder binder)
{
IDictionary<Type,object> cache = (IDictionary<Type,object>)CallSiteBinder_Cache.GetValue(binder);
Type ftype = cache.Select(t => t.Key).FirstOrDefault(t => t != null && t.IsGenericType && t.GetGenericTypeDefinition() == typeof(Func<,,,>));
if(ftype == null) return null;
Type[] genargs = ftype.GetGenericArguments();
return genargs[2];
}
This method obtains the secret Cache dictionary and finds a Type key that is has been constructed from Func<T1,T2,T3,TResult>. Then is just extracts the type argument.
Couldn't you add an overload:
public override bool TrySetMember<T>(SetMemberBinder binder, Nullable<T> value)
{
properties[binder.Name] = value;
propertyTypes[binder.Name] = typeof(Nullable<T>);
return true;
}
This is a good question, but there's no general solution. An object parameter can't detect whether the value passed was previously stored in a Nullable<T> variable. It seems like you will have to wait until you have multiple records and see if there are a mix of null and values.
In the specific case here, I would check the ReturnType property on the binder parameter and see if that tells you what you need. I see you already checked that.
Your general problem is that all you have is the value and its type, not the static type of the expression. For example, you can't distinguish these cases either:
string s = "hello";
object o = s;
dynamo.P = s; // case 1
dynamo.P = o; // case 2
or even
dynamo.Use(s);
dynamo.Use(o);
This is very different from statically-typed languages, where the type of an expression is used in overload resolution. It looks like that sort of thing just isn't possible with DynamicObject.

Return instance using reflection in C#

A sample code I tried to return an instance of class is given below.
public object getConstructorclass(int i)
{
if(i==1)
{
Type type = Type.GetType("test1");
}else
{
Type type = Type.GetType("test2");
}
return Activator.CreateInstance(type);
}
var objcls = getConstructorclass(1);
objcls.callclass();//error occured
How can I mention the class type here since the type is not known at compile time but it will decided at runtime.In the above example i just pass a value 1 (it can be anything and that class will be called accordingly), and the class test1 called.
here I will get an error on the line objcls.callclass(), because objcls is an object instance that doesn't have a callclass()method.
How can I restructure this piece of code? My aim is if I mention a class in the getConstructorclass() method, an object should be returned so as to use it in the further code to invoke the members of that class.
If you know that your classes will have this method, you should use a common interface for them and implement it accordingly. Then you will work with classes that you have made sure it will work.
It would look like this
IMyInterface objcls = getconstrorclass() as IMyInterface;
if (objcls != null)
objcls.callclass();
else
// we failed miserably and should do something about it
I don't think you should use some generic object returning constructor based on an int variable, if your classes don't have anything in common. It's really weird to handle it like this and it may lead to various problems (some of which you're currently already experiencing). Generic class constructors make sense if the classes are somewhat related and you can predict the outcome, but to create a do-it-all method.. Not so sure about correctness of such approach.
Anyway, if you insist (not recommended, but as you wish), you can create some checks for a type like this:
var createdObject = getConstructorclass(1);
if (createdObject is MyClass1)
{
var specificObject = (MyClass1)createdObject;
specificObject.callMethod1();
}
else if (createdObject is MyClass2)
{
var specificObject = (MyClass2)createdObject;
specificObject.callSomeOtherMethod();
}
...
But it gets very error prone soon, refactoring will probably be a nightmare etc., but it's your call..
Or you maybe can use solution from pwas, but to me it seems unnecessarily complicated for such a basic task. Looks nice and all, but it still returns only the type "object", so it doesn't really solve your specific problem.
Also, to address one issue I'm not sure you understand - you've already created the instance, you just return type object. That is why you can't call any specific methods on this object, because first you have to cast it to something, that actually has that method and make sure the cast can be done (inheritance etc).
If interface solution (see other answers) is enough, don't look at this answer. When you can't use common base class / interface and you still want call members, you can use solution with is keyword (and check types). Instead of writing many ifs for each case, you can use fluent API:
object obj = this.getConstructorclass();
obj.StronglyInvoke()
.When<int>(value => Console.WriteLine("Got {0} as int", value))
.When<string>(value => Console.WriteLine("Got {0} as string", value))
.OnFail(() => Debug.Write("No handle."))
.Invoke();
Solution:
public class GenericCaller
{
private IList<GenericInvoker> invokers = new List<GenericInvoker>();
private readonly object target;
private Action failAction;
public GenericCaller(object target)
{
if (target == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("target");
}
this.target = target;
}
public GenericCaller OnFail(Action fail)
{
this.failAction = fail;
return this;
}
public GenericCaller When<T>(Action<T> then)
{
if (then == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("then");
}
var invoker = new GenericInvoker<T>(this.target, then);
this.invokers.Add(invoker);
return this;
}
public void Invoke()
{
if (this.invokers.Any(invoker => invoker.Invoke()))
{
return;
}
if (this.failAction == null)
{
throw new InvalidOperationException("Handler not found");
}
this.failAction();
}
public abstract class GenericInvoker
{
protected readonly object target;
protected GenericInvoker(object target)
{
this.target = target;
}
public abstract bool Invoke();
}
public class GenericInvoker<T> : GenericInvoker
{
private readonly Action<T> then;
public GenericInvoker(object target, Action<T> then)
: base(target)
{
this.then = then;
}
public override bool Invoke()
{
if (this.target.GetType() == typeof(T))
{
this.then((T)this.target);
return true;
}
return false;
}
}
}
public static class Extensions
{
public static GenericCaller StronglyInvoke(this object o)
{
return new GenericCaller(o);
}
}
Remeber - it would be more elegant to use common interface (as other answers say) - my is only alternative way.
Declare your variable as dynamic
dynamic objcls = getconstrorclass();
Using this the will be determined at run-time, whatever the getconstrorclass method returns. You can access any member of the type and you won't get any error at compile-time. But if you try to access a member which doesn't exists you will get a RuntimeBinderException at runtime.
I would recommend using an interface and restricting the classes that you can instantiate this way to only those that implement the interface.
public interface IMyInterface
{
void callclass();
}
public <T> getConstructorClass()
{
T instance;
Type type = Type.GetType("test1");
// instance will be null if the object cannot be cast to type T.
instance = Activator.CreateInstance(type) as T;
return T;
}
IMyInterface objcls = getConstructorClass<IMyInterface>();
if(null != objcls)
{
objcls.callclass();
}
not sure what you want to achieve in the end, but this looks like a job for "Dependency Injection" - here is a nice sample using autofac

Dynamic Object - How to tell if a property is defined?

I have a dynamic object that looks as follows:
this.ChartDetails.Chart
'Chart' is dynamic. I want to see if a dynamic property exists on Chart named LeftYAxis. What is the best way to do this on dynamic objects?
I don't think this is a duplicate of How to detect if a property exists on an ExpandoObject? because it doesn't discuss the best method to do this for dynamic objects.
For a variety of reasons it's best to avoid try/catch blocks for control flow. Therefore, while Christopher's method attains the desired result, I find this preferable:
this.ChartDetails.Chart.GetType().GetProperty("LeftYAxis") != null;
bool isDefined = false;
object axis = null;
try
{
axis = this.ChartDetails.Chart.LeftYAxis;
isDefined = true;
}
catch(RuntimeBinderException)
{ }
This is what happens at runtime in the first place. (When you access a property the 'dynamic' piece of things only happens when a first-chance exception gets handled by the object's override of DynamicObject's TryGetMember and TrySetMember
Some objects (like ExpandoObject) are actually dictionaries under the hood and you can check them directly as follows:
bool isDefined = ((IDictionary<string, object>)this.ChartDetails.Chart)
.ContainsKey("LeftYAxis");
Basically: without knowing what actual type ChartDetails.Chart is (if it's an ExpandoObject a plain ol' subclass of object or a subclass of DynamicObject) there's no way besides the try/catch above. If you wrote the code for ChartDetails and Chart or have access to the source code you can determine what methods exist for the object and use those to check.
This Works if the dynamic object is a json/open-standard format.
I made two different method helpers one for open-standard format and one for "standard object".
// Checks if object typed json or xml has a specific property
public static bool IsPropertyExistsOpenStandardFormat(dynamic dynamicObject, string propertyName)
{
try
{
var x = dynamicObject[propertyName];
if (x != null)
return true;
}
catch
{
return false;
}
}
// Checks if standard object has a specific property
public static bool IsPropertyExistsStandard(dynamic dynamicObject, string propertyName)
{
return dynamicObject.GetType().GetProperty(propertyName) != null;
}
This one is working -:
public static bool IsPropertyExists(dynamic dynamicObj, string property)
{
try
{
var value=dynamicObj[property].Value;
return true;
}
catch (RuntimeBinderException)
{
return false;
}
}

Adding generic properties to an object without having to cast them later?

I have an object, MySession, that has a hashtable for storing arbitrary properties with arbitrary types. The relevant part of the object definition is:
public class MySession
{
private Hashtable _sessionVars;
///
/// Set and retrieve session variables ala the traditional session managers.
/// So, SessionObject["var1"] can be used to set or retrieve a value for var1.
///
/// Name of the variable to access.
/// An object that was stored in the session under key.
public object this[string key] {
get {
if (_sessionVars.ContainsKey(key)) {
return this._sessionVars[key];
}
return null;
}
set {
if (this._sessionVars.ContainsKey(key)) {
this._sessionVars.Remove(key);
}
this._sessionVars[key] = value;
}
}
}
The annoying thing is that I have to properly cast the properties when I want to use them. For example:
MySession session = new MySession();
if ( (bool)session["valid"] == true ) { /* do something fun */ }
I would rather be able to do:
MySession session = new MySession();
if ( session["valid"] == true ) { /* do something fun */ }
Is it possible to do this in C#? If so, how?
Update: I do not want to use explicit methods for accessing the properties. The point is to be able to access them as simply as possible. Not like session.GetProperty(name, type) or something.
If you think carefully, you will realize that this is inherently impossible.
What if you write session[someTextbox.Text]?
What if you assign two different types to the same identifier?
Compiling such code would involve solving the halting problem to figure out what type each string would have.
Instead, you could make a strongly-typed wrapper class around HttpContext.Current.Session with properties that include casts in their getters.
If you are using .Net Framework 4.0 then you can do it by deriving your MySession class from DynamicObject and overriding the necessary methods.
Here is the code:
public class MySession : DynamicObject
{
//Why not use Dictionary class?
private Hashtable _sessionVars = new Hashtable();
public override bool TrySetMember(SetMemberBinder binder, object value)
{
this[binder.Name] = value;
return true;
}
public override bool TryGetMember(GetMemberBinder binder, out object result)
{
result = this[binder.Name];
return true;
}
//You can make it private so that users do not use strings directly.
public object this[string key]
{
get
{
if (_sessionVars.ContainsKey(key))
{
return this._sessionVars[key];
}
return null;
}
set
{
if (this._sessionVars.ContainsKey(key))
{
this._sessionVars.Remove(key);
}
this._sessionVars[key] = value;
}
}
}
And this how you use it:
dynamic ses = new MySession();
ses.number = 5;
ses.boolean = true;
Console.WriteLine(ses.number > 4);
if (ses.boolean)
{
Console.WriteLine(ses.number - 1);
}
Console.ReadKey();
No need for casting or using string to access the new fields! If you are using Resharper you will get intellisense for existing fields too. If you need more functionality you can override other members too.
I personally end up having to handle the scenario where the session variable hasn't been set yet. Therefore, I end up with a method that looks like this:
public class MySession
{
...
public T GetValue<T>(string key, T defaultValue)
{
return _sessionVars.ContainsKey(key) ? this._sessionVars[key] as T : defaultValue;
}
}
Then T can be inferred. It can then be called like this (no casting required):
if (mySession.GetValue("valid", false))
{
// fun stuff here
}
I'm not really sure is "as T" works. If not, you can cast it to (T) done that before. "as T" would be nice if you've got inherited classes and such.
I typically derive off a class like mySession and call base.GetValue() in property getters I expose off the derived class.
If you're passing string (or any sort of object) keys, then it's impossible to do; the indexer method can only return one specific type, so you couldn't possible have it return a string or a double, for instance.
There are a couple of options: one, if this is a limited-scope class that doesn't need the flexibility of arbitrary keys, then you can just add explicit properties--maybe just for commonly used properties if you want to still be able to fall back on the object-returning indexer.
Or, you could add a generic Get method, like so:
public T GetValue<T>(object key) {
if(_hashSet[key] is T) {
return (T)_hashSet[key];
}
throw new InvalidCastException();
}
That doesn't get you much, though, since you'll still have to specify the type name, you're just moving it from the cast to the generic parameter.
EDIT: Of course, how you want to handle invalid casts is up to you, but throwing the exception mimics the behavior of the direct cast. As someone mentioned in another answer, if you also specify a parameter of type T in the signature, then it will get the correct type from that parameter.
Easy and best way to add session
public static void Add<T>(string key, T value)
{
var current = HttpContext.Current;
if (current == null) return;
current.Session.Add(key, value);
}
Example
public Model User
{
private string searchText
{
get { return SessionHelper.Get<string>("searchText"); }
set { SessionHelper.Add("searchText", value); }
}
}

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