C# Detecting AnonymousType new{name=value,} and convert into Dictionary<string,object>

Question

I need to detect if an object was created anonymously like new{name=value,}

if it is an AnonymousType, it should add it's properties names/values into a

Dictionary<string,object>

This is what I hacked together myself:

var name="name";

var obj = new { name = new object(), };

var lookup = new Dictionary<string,object>();


if(obj.GetType().Name.StartsWith("<>f__AnonymousType"))
{
    foreach (var property in obj.GetType().GetProperties())
    {
        lookup[property.Name] = property.GetValue(obj, null);
    }
}
else
{
    lookup[name]=obj;
}

I was wondering if there is a better/faster way of detecting AnonymousTypes, or if there is a better/faster way to dump an object's properties names/values into a

Dictionary<string,object>

Answer 1

To get all the properties of an object, with its values into a Dictionary, you can couple the power of Linq to Objects with Reflection.

You can use the Enumerable.ToDictionary method:

var dic = obj.GetType()
             .GetProperties()
             .ToDictionary(p => p.Name,  p=> p.GetValue(obj, null));

This will return you a Dictionary<string, object>.

Answer 2

Use the new collection object initializer syntax instead of an anonymous type:

var obj = new Dictionary<string, object>()
{
    { "Name", t.Name },
    { "Value", t.Value }
};

Answer 3

Detecting an anonymous type is a little hard; not-least it depends on the language! VB anon-types don't look the same as C# anon-types. I'd be dubious about logic that acts vary differently on anon-types. You might check for [CompilerGenerated], but note that it doesn't just mean "anonymous type" - there are others that do this.

Personally, I wouldn't distinguish in this scenario.