Is it possible to store functions in a dictionary?

Question

I have a message coming into my C# app which is an object serialized as JSON, when i de-serialize it I have a "Name" string and a "Payload" string[], I want to be able to take the "Name" and look it up in a function dictionary, using the "Payload" array as its parameters and then take the output to return to the client sending the message, is this possible in C#?

I've found a stack overflow answer here where the second part seems plausible but i don't know what I'm referencing with State

Answer 1

It sounds like you probably want something like:

Dictionary<string, Func<string[], int>> functions = ...; 

This is assuming the function returns an int (you haven't specified). So you'd call it like this:

int result = functions[name](parameters); 

Or to validate the name:

Func<string[], int> function; if (functions.TryGetValue(name, out function)) {     int result = function(parameters);     ... } else {     // No function with that name } 

It's not clear where you're trying to populate functions from, but if it's methods in the same class, you could have something like:

Dictionary<string, Func<string[], int>> functions =      new Dictionary<string, Func<string[], int>> {     { "Foo", CountParameters },     { "Bar", SomeOtherMethodName } };  ...  private static int CountParameters(string[] parameters) {     return parameters.Length; }  // etc