Print all properties of different classes ?

Question

0.00/5 (No votes)

See more:

Hi,

I have base abstract class named Person, and I have some other calsses that inherited this class, I create a list of Person :

C#

List<person> baseP = new List<person>();
baseP[0].Add(new Worker("Yaakov",43));
baseP[1].Add(new Manager("David",54,"Intel"));
baseP[2].Add(new Teacher("Ella",33,"A"));

now I want to print this list and all properties of the workers types, each one of them has other additional propertis...

what is the best way to scan this list and print all properties ???

Thanks

Posted 14-Aug-15 2:26am

Member 10304617

Updated 14-Aug-15 2:33am

Wendelius

v2

Add a Solution

3 solutions

Solution 1

You can use reflection to investigate the properties. For example you can list the properties of a type using GetProperties[^] method.

Few articles that might be interesting:
- Reflection in .NET[^]
- C#: Using Reflection and Custom Attributes to Map Object Properties[^]
- Looping through Object's properties in C#[^]

Posted 14-Aug-15 2:34am

Wendelius

Updated 14-Aug-15 2:35am

v2

Solution 2

This is easy.

Please see:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/58918ffs.aspx[^] (to get System.Type object from a class),
and then: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/kyaxdd3x%28v=vs.110%29.aspx[^].

—SA

Posted 14-Aug-15 5:07am

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

kbrandwijk · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-15T14:47:00

Solution 3

I wouldn't go down the reflection road. It's slow, and it's ugly. Especially since you know all your object types beforehand.

Implement an abstract method in your base class and override it in your inherited classes to show the display value, or better yet, use ToString() overrides in all inherited classes. Both options give you full control over the information you want to display for each inherited type.

Next, just loop through the list and call ToString() or your own method on every object to display the necessary information.

Posted 15-Aug-15 14:47pm

kbrandwijk

Comments

Member 10304617 16-Aug-15 2:08am

great idea...
and if there are some methods specific to class, the way to call them is
if(class is Worker)
(class as Worker).RequiredMethod();
??

kbrandwijk 16-Aug-15 7:35am

That is possible, or again, create an abstract method for this in the base class (ExecuteSpecificMethods()) and override this method in the inherited classes. Then, you can just always call the ExecuteSpecificMethods method on every item in the list without type checking etc. Again, knowledge about the implementation should be put as close as possible to the implementation, in this case, in the inherited classes themselves, and preferably not where you process the list.
If this approach works for you, then please accept my solution as the answer to your question.

Member 10304617 16-Aug-15 8:40am

thanks,
one Q - what is the best way to do it? How would you do it?

kbrandwijk 16-Aug-15 9:24am

That really depends on the situation. I would use ToString() if what you're after is a simple human readable representation of your class (as the documentation states) for either GUI or dev/debug purposes. In your case, you want all properties of a class presented in a certain way, so I would use a separate method, and not use the ToString() override. But it all comes down to personal preference.

Member 10304617 16-Aug-15 9:26am

it is not just to print properties, I also want to execute method that done something specific for the class

kbrandwijk 16-Aug-15 9:43am

I have already described that in my comment above as well. Please try it out yourself, and if you get stuck somewhere, please post back here with a specific question.