How to get the name of List

Question

I am passing a List to a method and I was wondering, the easiest way to return actual name of this list. I am trying to achieve something like this.

static List<string> GatherDataPerProduct(List<Pandora.Data.DomainObject> lstdata)
{
    if(lstData.value == "subjects")
    {
      //do whatever
    }

Why is this question downvoted so much? It's true that what he's trying to do is probably not possible, but that doesn't make it an invalid question. — Kenneth, May 16 '13 at 09:09
@Kenneth, not my downvote, but i have read the question multiple times and still have no idea what is being asked. — Habib, May 16 '13 at 09:12
It's true that it could be a little clearer, but I think that if he clarifies his question a bit, it could be a valid question. I may understand the down votes because it's a bit unclear. I do not however understand the close votes since it's definitely salvagable. — Kenneth, May 16 '13 at 09:15
I believe that this question should not be closed (or if so, maybe only because it's a duplicate). @Arianule, you should specify more clearly that you are trying to get the variable name of the passed in parameter to the method call. — Alex Filipovici, May 16 '13 at 09:27

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 16 '13 at 09:01

You will need to wrap your list in another object, that contains the extra data. e.g.

public class DataList
{
    public List<Pandora.Data.DomainObject> Data {get; set;}
    public string Name {get; set;}
}

...

static List<string> GatherDataPerProduct(DataList lstdata)
{
    if(lstData.Name == "subjects")
    ....
}

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered May 16 '13 at 09:06

If what you mean is the name of the variable that was used when the list was passed to the method like this:

static List<string> GatherDataPerProduct(List<Pandora.Data.DomainObject> lstdata)
    {
        if(lstData.value == "subjects")
        {
          //do whatever
         }

List<DomainObject> subjects;
GatherDataPerProduct(subjects);

then what you're trying to do is not possible. The reason is that upon compilation, the compiler will remove all variable names. That means you cannot get the names of variables. If what you really want is name the object itself, then you should go with Dave's answer and wrap the list inside another object and define a property on it.

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:06

Try this:

using Extensions;

namespace ConsoleApplication
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var subjects = default(List<Pandora.Data.DomainObject>);
            var result = Helper<List<Pandora.Data.DomainObject>>.ExampleFunction(() => subjects);
        }
    }

}
namespace Extensions
{
    static class Helper<T>
    {
        public static List<string> ExampleFunction(Expression<Func<T>> f)
        {
            if ((f.Body as MemberExpression).Member.Name == "subjects")
            {
                return new List<String>();
            }
            return null;
        }
    }
}

The original solution is here.

How to get the name of List

3 Answers3