I frequently find myself having a need to create a class as a container for some data. It only gets used briefly yet I still have to create the class. Like this:
public class TempObject
{
public string LoggedInUsername { get; set; }
public CustomObject SomeCustomObject { get; set; }
public DateTime LastLoggedIn { get; set; }
}
public void DoSomething()
{
TempObject temp = new TempObject
{
LoggedInUsername = "test",
SomeCustomObject = //blah blah blah,
LastLoggedIn = DateTime.Now
};
DoSomethingElse(temp);
}
public void DoSomethingElse(TempObject temp)
{
// etc...
}
Usually my temporary objects have a lot more properties, which is the reason I want to group them in the first place. I wish there was an easier way, such as with an anonymous type. The problem is, I don't know what to accept when I pass it to another method. The type is anonymous, so how am I supposed to accept it on the other side?
public void DoSomething()
{
var temp = new
{
LoggedInUsername = "test",
SomeCustomObject = //blah blah,
LastLoggedIn = DateTime.Now
};
// I have intellisense on the temp object as long as I'm in the scope of this method.
DoSomethingElse(temp);
}
public void DoSomethingElse(????)
{
// Can't get my anonymous type here. And even if I could I doubt I would have intellisense.
}
Is there a better way to create a temporary container for a bunch of different types, or do I need to define classes every time I need a temporary object to group things together?
Thanks in advance.
Tuple may be the solution you're looking for.
public void DoSomething()
{
var temp = Tuple.Create("test", "blah blah blah", DateTime.Now);
DoSomethingElse(temp);
}
public void DoSomethingElse(Tuple<string, string, DateTime> data)
{
// ...
}
The rules state that
You cannot declare a field, a property, an event, or the return type of a method as having an anonymous type. Similarly, you cannot declare a formal parameter of a method, property, constructor, or indexer as having an anonymous type.
Personally, I would just bite the bullet on this one to preserve compile time integrity.
The Tuple is the clean way to go, but just to let you know that C# doesn't let you down even otherwise and to answer the question, this is how DoSomethingElse
could look like:
private static void DoSomething(object temp)
{
var typedTemp = CastToType(temp, new
{
LoggedInUsername = "dummy",
SomeCustomObject = "dummy",
LastLoggedIn = DateTime.Now
});
Console.WriteLine(typedTemp.LastLoggedIn);
}
private static T CastToType<T>(object obj, T type)
{
return (T) obj;
}
PS: Don't -1, I won't use this, I don't ask you to use this :)
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