Using Generics to return a literal string or from Dictionary<string, object>
- by Mike
I think I outsmarted myself this time. Feel free to edit the title also I could not think of a good one.
I am reading from a file and then in that file will be a string because its like an xml file. But in the file will be a literal value or a "command" to get the value from the workContainer
so
<Email>[email protected]</Email>
or
<Email>[? MyEmail ?]</Email>
What I wanted to do instead of writing ifs all over the place to put it in a generic function
so logic is
If Container command grab from container else grab string and convert to desired type
Its up to the user to ensure the file is ok and the type is correct
so another example is
so
<Answer>3</Answer>
or
<Answer>[? NumberOfSales ?]</Answer>
This is the procedure I started to work on
public class WorkContainer:Dictionary<string, object>
{
public T GetKeyValue<T>(string Parameter)
{
if (Parameter.StartsWith("[? "))
{
string key = Parameter.Replace("[? ", "").Replace(" ?]", "");
if (this.ContainsKey(key))
{
return (T)this[key];
}
else
{
// may throw error for value types
return default(T);
}
}
else
{
// Does not Compile
if (typeof(T) is string)
{
return Parameter
}
// OR return (T)Parameter
}
}
}
The Call would be
mail.To = container.GetKeyValue<string>("[email protected]");
or
mail.To = container.GetKeyValue<string>("[? MyEmail ?]");
int answer = container.GetKeyValue<int>("3");
or
answer = container.GetKeyValue<int>("[? NumberOfSales ?]");
But it does not compile?
