How can I use complex property names in anonymous type?

Question

In my MVC3 application I want to create an anonymous collection with fields names like this:

new 
{                                                                            
   Buyer.Firstname = "Jim",
   Buyer.Lastname = "Carrey",
   Phone = "403-222-6487",
   PhoneExtension = "",
   SmsNumber = "",
   Buyer.Company = "Company 10025",
   Buyer.ZipCode = "90210",
   Buyer.City = "Beverly Hills",
   Buyer.State = "CA",
   Buyer.Address1 = "Address 10025"
   Licenses[0].IsDeleted = "False",
   Licenses[0].ID = "6",
   Licenses[0].AdmissionDate = "2,1999",
   Licenses[0].AdmissionDate_monthSelected = "2",                                                                           

                                                                    } 

I want to have this in order to send custom post requests during integration testing of my app. How can I declare a an anonymous collection with this field names?

Answer 1

Use an anonymous collection of anonymous objects, like so:

Licenses = new [] {
    new {
        IsDeleted = "False",
        ID = "6",
        AdmissionDate = "2,1999",
        AdmissionDate_monthSelected = "2"
    } //, ... and so on
}

... and in context: ([edit] Oh, and I didn't see your buyer...)

new 
{    
    Buyer = new {
        Firstname = "Jim",
        Lastname = "Carrey",
        Company = "Company 10025",
        ZipCode = "90210",
        City = "Beverly Hills",
        State = "CA",
        Address1 = "Address 10025",
    },                                                                        
    Phone = "403-222-6487",
    PhoneExtension = "",
    SmsNumber = "",
    Licenses = new [] {
        new {
            IsDeleted = "False",
            ID = "6",
            AdmissionDate = "2,1999",
            AdmissionDate_monthSelected = "2"
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

You could use object and collection initializer syntax:

var anonymousObject = new 
{                                                                            
    Phone = "403-222-6487",
    PhoneExtension = "",
    SmsNumber = "",
    Buyer = new 
    {
        Firstname = "Jim",
        Lastname = "Carrey",
        Company = "Company 10025",
        ZipCode = "90210",
        City = "Beverly Hills",
        State = "CA",
        Address1 = "Address 10025"
    },
    Licenses = new[]
    {
        new
        {
            IsDeleted = "False",
            ID = "6",
            AdmissionDate = "2,1999",
            AdmissionDate_monthSelected = "2",                                                                           
        }
    }
} 

Answer 3

Try this:

var x = new {
    Phone = "403-222-6487",
    PhoneExtension = "",
    SmsNumber = "",
    Buyer = new {
        Firstname = "Jim",
        Lastname = "Carrey",
        Company = "Company 10025",
        ZipCode = "90210",
        City = "Beverly Hills",
        State = "CA",
        Address1 = "Address 10025"
    },
    Licenses = new[] {
        new {
            IsDeleted = "False",
            ID = "6",
            AdmissionDate = "2,1999",
            AdmissionDate_monthSelected = "2"},
        new {
            IsDeleted = "True",
            ID = "7",
            AdmissionDate = "17,2001",
            AdmissionDate_monthSelected = "3"}
    }
};

Note: I am using a nested anonymous type for buyers and a nested array of yet another anyonymous type for licences. This allows you to access values like this

string name = x.Buyer.Lastname;
string id = x.Licences[0].ID;