I'm trying to create some dynamic ExpandoObject
. I've encountered a certain problem.
As I don't know what the name of these different properties in my objects should be, I can't do like this:
var list = new ArrayList();
var obj = new ExpandoObject();
obj.ID = 1,
obj.Product = "Pie",
obj.Days = 1,
obj.QTY = 65
list.Add(obj);
Let me explain my situation: I wish to get data from a random DB (I don't know which, but building a connection string from the information I get from the UI), therefore I don't know what data I need to get. This could be an example of a DB table
TABLE Sale
- ID: int,
- Product: nvarchar(100),
- Days: int,
- QTY: bigint
This could be another exmaple:
TABLE Foobar
- Id: int,
- Days: int
- QTY: bigint
- Product_Id: int
- Department_Id: int
As you see, I don't know what the DB looks like (this is 100% anonymous, therefore it needs to be 100% dynamic), and the data I want to return should look like a well constructed JSON, like so:
[
{
"ID": 1,
"Product": "Pie"
"Days": 1,
"QTY": 65
},
{
"ID": 2,
"Product": "Melons"
"Days": 5,
"QTY": 12
}
]
Or, with the other example:
[
{
"ID": 1,
"Days": 2,
"QTY": 56,
"Product_Id": 5,
"Department_Id": 2
}
{
"ID": 2,
"Days": 6,
"QTY": 12,
"Product_Id": 2,
"Department_Id": 5
}
]
I've tried working with these ExpandoObject
s, but can't seem to make it work, as I can't do what's illustrated in the top of this question (I don't know the names of the properties). Is there a way for me to say something like:
var obj = new ExpandoObject();
var propName = "Product";
var obj.propName = "Pie"
Console.WriteLine("Let's print!: " + obj.Product);
//OUTPUT
Let's print!: Pie
Does anyone have a solution, og simply guidance to a structure, that might solve this situation?
Rather than creating an ExpandoObject
or some other dynamic type, you could create a List<Dictionary<string, object>>
where each Dictionary<string, object>
contains the name/value pairs you want to serialize. Then serialize to JSON using Json.NET (or JavaScriptSerializer
, though that is less flexible):
var list = new List<Dictionary<string, object>>();
// Build a dictionary entry using a dictionary initializer: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb531208.aspx
list.Add(new Dictionary<string, object> { { "ID", 1 }, {"Product", "Pie"}, {"Days", 1}, {"QTY", 65} });
// Build a dictionary entry incrementally
// See https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xfhwa508%28v=vs.110%29.aspx
var dict = new Dictionary<string, object>();
dict["ID"] = 2;
dict["Product"] = "Melons";
dict["Days"] = 5;
dict["QTY"] = 12;
list.Add(dict);
Console.WriteLine(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(list, Formatting.Indented));
Console.WriteLine(new JavaScriptSerializer().Serialize(list));
The first outputs:
[
{
"ID": 1,
"Product": "Pie",
"Days": 1,
"QTY": 65
},
{
"ID": 2,
"Product": "Melons",
"Days": 5,
"QTY": 12
}
]
The second outputs the same without the indentation:
[{"ID":1,"Product":"Pie","Days":1,"QTY":65},{"ID":2,"Product":"Melons","Days":5,"QTY":12}]
Use dynamic
, then cast to IDictionary<string, object>
to loop through your properties:
dynamic obj = new ExpandoObject();
obj.Product = "Pie";
obj.Quantity = 2;
// Loop through all added properties
foreach(var prop in (IDictionary<string, object>)obj)
{
Console.WriteLine(prop.Key + " : " + prop.Value);
}
I've made a fiddle: https://dotnetfiddle.net/yFLy2u
Now this is a solution to your question... other answers like @dbc's might be better suited to the problem (which is not the question, really)
As you can see here ExpandoObject Class, the ExpandoObject
is implementing IDictionary<string, object>
, so you can use that fact like
IDictionary<string, object> obj = new ExpandoObject();
var propName = "Product";
obj[propName] = "Pie"
Console.WriteLine("Let's print!: " + obj[propName]);
// Verify it's working
Console.WriteLine("Let's print again!: " + ((dynamic)obj).Product);
While I was writing the answer, I see you already got proper answer. You can use a Dictionary<string, onject>
or even Tuple
.
But as per your original question, you wanted to add properties dynamically. For that you can refer to other answer using ExpandoObject
. This is just the same solution (using ExpandoObject
to dynamically add properties) with classes similar to your code.
//example classes
public class DictKey
{
public string DisplayName { get; set; }
public DictKey(string name) { DisplayName = name; }
}
public class DictValue
{
public int ColumnIndex { get; set; }
public DictValue(int idx) { ColumnIndex = idx; }
}
//utility method
public static IDictionary<string, object> GetExpando(KeyValuePair<DictKey, List<DictValue>> dictPair)
{
IDictionary<string, object> dynamicObject = new ExpandoObject();
dynamicObject["Station"] = dictPair.Key.DisplayName;
foreach (var item in dictPair.Value)
{
dynamicObject["Month" + (item.ColumnIndex + 1)] = item;
}
return dynamicObject;
}
Ans usage example:
var dictionaryByMonth = new Dictionary<DictKey, List<DictValue>>();
dictionaryByMonth.Add(new DictKey("Set1"), new List<DictValue> { new DictValue(0), new DictValue(2), new DictValue(4), new DictValue(6), new DictValue(8) });
dictionaryByMonth.Add(new DictKey("Set2"), new List<DictValue> { new DictValue(1), new DictValue(2), new DictValue(5), new DictValue(6), new DictValue(11) });
var rowsByMonth = dictionaryByMonth.Select(item => GetExpando(item));
First part, read this blog post by C# team thoroughly.
Lets see your code
var obj = new ExpandoObject();
var propName = "Product";
var obj.propName = "Pie"
Console.WriteLine("Let's print!: " + obj.Product);
//OUTPUT
Let's print!: Pie
In your code you are using var obj = new ExpandoObject();
, so you are creating a statically typed object of type ExpandableObject
. In the blog they specifically call out
I didn’t write ExpandoObject contact = new ExpandoObject(), because if I did contact would be a statically-typed object of the ExpandoObject type. And of course, statically-typed variables cannot add members at run time. So I used the new dynamic keyword instead of a type declaration, and since ExpandoObject supports dynamic operations, the code works
So if you rewrite your code to use dynamic obj
, and add the dynamic properties as properties it should work!
But for your particular use case you better use Dictionaries as suggested above by @dbc
dynamic obj = new ExpandoObject();
obj.Product= "Pie"
Console.WriteLine("Let's print!: " + obj.Product);
//OUTPUT
Let's print!: Pie