C# - Get value from dictionary with key - return p

Question

I'm making a program which when a chemical symbol of an element is entered, it'll return information of that element onto the form. This is simple to do but it want to try and keep my code as efficient as possible.

My dictionary:

Dictionary<string, object> alkaliM = new Dictionary<string, object>();

In my code also:

alkaliM.Add("Li", new AlkaliMetals.Lithium());

elementSymbol is my input string from the textbox

I'm trying to set elementName.Text to the property "name" of my AlkaliMetals.Lithium object. However, i can't simply put:

elementName.Text = alkaliM[elementSymbol.Text]; as i can't set an object as a string. ("Cannot implicty convert type "object" to "string"")

Is there any way to set elementName.Text to AlkaliMetals.Lithium.name using only the key?

I have a separate file that has a main class AlkaliMetals and subclasses for each of the alkali metals like Lithium.

If my description doesn't make sense let me know and i'll try to explain what i mean.

Answer 1

You can make all the sub classes in AlkaliMetals.cs implement an abstract class CommonAbstractClass having the property name

Define you dictionary as Dictionary<string, CommonAbstractClass>

Then use your dictionary as follows elementName.Text = alkaliM[elementSymbol.Text].name;

Answer 2

You can find the name property (if you are absolutely sure it exists) using dynamic cast:

elementName.Text = (alkaliM[elementSymbol.Text] as dynamic).name

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However, a more efficient approach would be Object Oriented Design:

Define a class named ChemicalElement, add name property to it and then derive Lithium from ChemicalElement. This way you can write:

elementName.Text = (alkaliM[elementSymbol.Text] as ChemicalElement).name

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Best solution is to define your dictionary like this:

Dictionary<string, ChemicalElement> alkaliM = new Dictionary<string, ChemicalElement>();

And then access the name like:

elementName.Text = alkaliM[elementSymbol.Text].name