Create object using user input in C#

Question

I would like to use a string from user input as the name of a new object. This is where i'm currently at:

string newMemberName = "";
Human Mihkel = new Human("Mihkel", 1); //example of creating an object

Console.WriteLine("Please enter the desired name of the new human member!");
                    newMemberName = Console.ReadLine();
                    Human [newMemberName] \*this would be the user input*\ = new Human(newMemberName, 1);

I can't figure out how to do it. I've googled the hell out of it and still nothing. I'm not experienced in C# aswell but after hours of investigation and tutorials I just can't find a solution for this problem.

Answer 1

You're using the wrong data structure. Trying to use dynamic variable names is a bad idea, mostly not possible, and would make the code horrible in the attempts to use those variables. The vast majority of code written would be trying to hack together a working solution to the problem of naming a variable, entirely forgetting the actual domain logic you're trying to implement and the actual solution you're trying to build.

Data structures exist for such things. This sounds like a good use case for something like a Dictionary<string, Human> instead. You can declare the collection in advance:

var humans = new Dictionary<string, Human>();

And then add key/value pairs where the name (from user input) is the (always unique) key:

humans.Add(newMemberName, new Human(newMemberName, 1));

Then you can always refer to that element from the collection by its name:

humans[newMemberName].SomeProperty = "some value";

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Though there's a case to be made here that, unless there's a really good reason to use a Dictionary<> (extremely fast lookups, guaranteed uniqueness of keys), you're still "duplicating data" because both the key and the "name" value in the object itself are the same value.

What happens if a Human ever changes its name? The key is now wrong.

For small data sets and simple application logic, a List<Human> will do just fine:

var humans = new List<Human>();
humans.Add(new Human(newMemberName, 1));

And you can query it by the name, or any other query you'd like to use:

humans.Single(h => h.Name == newMemberName).SomeProperty = "some value";