How to call object's property via its string name.
Recently, I needed a way to invoke object's property via string, instead of its real name, yes I sacrificed the compile time checking :)
What do I mean by that?
Instead of writing code like this:
class SampleObject
{
public Property1{get;set;}
}
SampleObject o = new SampleObject()
o.Property1 = "some value";
I needed a way to do this:
o."Property1" = "some value";
One simple (enough) way to accomplish this is by implementing an object indexer inside the class combined with reflection:
public object this[string name]
{
get
{
var properties =
typeof(SampleObject).GetProperties(
BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance);
foreach (var property in properties)
{
if (property.Name == name && property.CanRead)
{
return property.GetValue(this, null);
}
}
}
set{......}
}
and Voilà!
Now I can call the object via string like this:
to get value:
var myValue = o["Property1"];
to set value:
o["Property1"] = "SomeValue" // see my sample project for details.
You can download my sample project here.
Happy coding!
