Using a variable inside a member of an object

Question

I am pulling several elements of data out of an object in C#. They are all in the same 'place' within the object, as in:

objectContainer.TableData.Street.ToString());
objectContainer.TableData.City.ToString());
objectContainer.TableData.State.ToString());
objectContainer.TableData.ZipCode.ToString());

I would LIKE to use a foreach loop to pull them all and be able to add more by adding to the array.

string[] addressFields = new string[] { "Street", "City", "State", "ZipCode" };
foreach(string add in addressFields) 
{
  objectContainer.TableData.{add}.ToString());
}

Can this be done, and if so, what is the correct procedure?

Are you trying to add items to your TableData, or you want to get items from TableData? Your intent is not clear — Sergey Berezovskiy, Jan 25 '13 at 13:18
I am trying to Get and yes, the GetType().GetProperty() is what I was looking for and couldn't find. Thank you all. — Rick Gerdes, Jan 25 '13 at 14:31

Daniel Hilgarth · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-25T13:35:14.777

You would need to use reflection to achieve this:

var type = objectContainer.TableData.GetType();

foreach(var addressFieldName in addressFieldNames)
{
    var property = type.GetProperty(addressFieldName);
    if(property == null)
        continue;
    var value = property.GetValue(objectContainer.TableData, null);
    var stringValue = string.Empty;
    if(value != null)
        stringValue = value.ToString();
}

Please note: This code is pretty defensive:

It will not crash if no property with the specified name exists.
It will not crash if the value of the property is null.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 25 '13 at 13:21

You can use Reflection to do this.

string[] addressFields = new string[] { "Street", "City", "State", "ZipCode" };
foreach(string add in addressFields) 
{
  var myVal = objectContainer.TableData.GetType().GetProperty(add).GetValue(objectContainer.TableData).ToString();
}

Note that this doesn't allow for array values that don't have a corresponding property on objectContainer.TableData.

Using a variable inside a member of an object

2 Answers2