Mapping object to dictionary and vice versa

Question

Are there any elegant quick way to map object to a dictionary and vice versa?

Example:

IDictionary<string,object> a = new Dictionary<string,object>();
a["Id"]=1;
a["Name"]="Ahmad";
// .....

becomes

SomeClass b = new SomeClass();
b.Id=1;
b.Name="Ahmad";
// ..........

Answer 1

Using some reflection and generics in two extension methods you can achieve that.

Right, others did mostly the same solution, but this uses less reflection which is more performance-wise and way more readable:

public static class ObjectExtensions
{
    public static T ToObject<T>(this IDictionary<string, object> source)
        where T : class, new()
    {
            var someObject = new T();
            var someObjectType = someObject.GetType();

            foreach (var item in source)
            {
                someObjectType
                         .GetProperty(item.Key)
                         .SetValue(someObject, item.Value, null);
            }

            return someObject;
    }

    public static IDictionary<string, object> AsDictionary(this object source, BindingFlags bindingAttr = BindingFlags.DeclaredOnly | BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance)
    {
        return source.GetType().GetProperties(bindingAttr).ToDictionary
        (
            propInfo => propInfo.Name,
            propInfo => propInfo.GetValue(source, null)
        );

    }
}

class A
{
    public string Prop1
    {
        get;
        set;
    }

    public int Prop2
    {
        get;
        set;
    }
}

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Dictionary<string, object> dictionary = new Dictionary<string, object>();
        dictionary.Add("Prop1", "hello world!");
        dictionary.Add("Prop2", 3893);
        A someObject = dictionary.ToObject<A>();

        IDictionary<string, object> objectBackToDictionary = someObject.AsDictionary();
    }
}

Answer 2

Convert the Dictionary to JSON string first with Newtonsoft.

var json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(advancedSettingsDictionary, Newtonsoft.Json.Formatting.Indented);

Then deserialize the JSON string to your object

var myobject = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<AOCAdvancedSettings>(json);

Answer 3

Seems reflection only help here.. I've done small example of converting object to dictionary and vise versa:

[TestMethod]
public void DictionaryTest()
{
    var item = new SomeCLass { Id = "1", Name = "name1" };
    IDictionary<string, object> dict = ObjectToDictionary<SomeCLass>(item);
    var obj = ObjectFromDictionary<SomeCLass>(dict);
}

private T ObjectFromDictionary<T>(IDictionary<string, object> dict)
    where T : class 
{
    Type type = typeof(T);
    T result = (T)Activator.CreateInstance(type);
    foreach (var item in dict)
    {
        type.GetProperty(item.Key).SetValue(result, item.Value, null);
    }
    return result;
}

private IDictionary<string, object> ObjectToDictionary<T>(T item)
    where T: class
{
    Type myObjectType = item.GetType();
    IDictionary<string, object> dict = new Dictionary<string, object>();
    var indexer = new object[0];
    PropertyInfo[] properties = myObjectType.GetProperties();
    foreach (var info in properties)
    {
        var value = info.GetValue(item, indexer);
        dict.Add(info.Name, value);
    }
    return dict;
}