Serialize object to ampersand separated name and value

Question

Having this data:

class User
{
    public string Name {get; set;}
    public string SurrName {get; set;}
}

class Book
{
    public int Id {get; set;}
    public string Title {get; set;}
}

var user = getSampleUser();
var book = getSampleBook();

I want to create string which will constains serialized object to &name=value.

var userContent = user.ToRequestContent(); // "&Name=Adam&Surrname=Smith";
var bookContent = book.ToRequestContent(); // "&Id=5&Title=7";

How can I do that?

Answer 1

You can try to use linq with reflation to get Properties information and value.

I would write a extention method.

public static class ExtenstionArray
{
    public static string ToRequestContent<T>(this T model) {
        var list = model.GetType().GetProperties()
               .Select(x => new
               {
                   val = x.GetValue(model).ToString(),
                   name = x.Name
               })
               .Select(z => string.Join("=", z.name, z.val));

        return "&"+ string.Join("&", list);
    }
}

Then you can use like this.

User u = new User() { Name = "test", SurrName = "aa" };
Book b = new Book() { Id = 134, Title = "aass" };
Console.WriteLine( u.ToRequestContent());
Console.WriteLine( b.ToRequestContent());

c# online

Result

&Name=test&SurrName=aa
&Id=134&Title=aass

Answer 2

why not just:

class User
{
    public string Name {get; set;}
    public string SurrName {get; set;}
    public string ToRequestContent()
    {
         return "&Name="+Name+"&Surrname="+SurrName;
    }
}

class Book
{
    public int Id {get; set;}
    public string Title {get; set;}
    public string ToRequestContent()
    {
         return "&Id="+Id+"&Title="+Title;
    }
}