Dynamic Field in C#?

[Hoi Wong]

In new versions of MATLAB, I can do dynamic field like

userdata.('user name').electroc ardiogram = 4,

where 'username' can be replaced by any string variable. This made my
software design much neater. Does anybody know if C# support that? If so,
what's the syntax?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Hoi

[Peter Duniho]

On Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:48:40 -0700, Hoi Wong <wo*****@stanfo rd.eduwrote:

In new versions of MATLAB, I can do dynamic field like

userdata.('user name').electroc ardiogram = 4,

where 'username' can be replaced by any string variable. This made my
software design much neater. Does anybody know if C# support that? If so,
what's the syntax?

The language doesn't support it directly, no. But you can easily
implement something using a Dictionary or indexer that does something
similar, depending on your specific need.

Pete

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

Hoi Wong <wo*****@stanfo rd.eduwrote:

In new versions of MATLAB, I can do dynamic field like

userdata.('user name').electroc ardiogram = 4,

where 'username' can be replaced by any string variable. This made my
software design much neater. Does anybody know if C# support that? If so,
what's the syntax?

You need to use a Dictionary<TKey ,TValue>:

userData["username"].Electrocardiog ram = 4;

(where userData is defined appropriately, of course).

--
Jon Skeet - <sk***@pobox.co m>
Web site: http://www.pobox.com/~skeet
Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/jon.skeet
C# in Depth: http://csharpindepth.com

[Mr. Arnold]

"Hoi Wong" <wo*****@stanfo rd.eduwrote in message
news:fv******** **@news.Stanfor d.EDU...

In new versions of MATLAB, I can do dynamic field like

userdata.('user name').electroc ardiogram = 4,

where 'username' can be replaced by any string variable. This made my
software design much neater. Does anybody know if C# support that? If so,
what's the syntax?

I know you can do this with ADO.Net and C# when addressing fields in a
datatable dynamically addressing fields in the table by name. As a matter of
fact, I was taking a column/field name from a another table that
represented the fieldname in the table I wanted to access.

This just off the top of my head as to how it worked.

string fieldname = arow[brow["displayfldname "].Tostring()];

The field in arow was accessed via the name of the field that was in brow --
"displaynam e". Arow held the data that brow accessed to build dynamic
screens based on the tblScreenFields access into tblScreenData.

The ToString() was the key to getting it to work.

So, I don't see why you couldn't do the same in your example of addressing a
field dynamically, hopefully, and you can try it.

[Hoi Wong]

Sweet. Thanks for the pointer (no pun intended)!
"Jon Skeet [C# MVP]" <sk***@pobox.co mwrote in message
news:MP******** *************@m snews.microsoft .com...

Hoi Wong <wo*****@stanfo rd.eduwrote:

>In new versions of MATLAB, I can do dynamic field like

userdata.('use rname').electro cardiogram = 4,

where 'username' can be replaced by any string variable. This made my
software design much neater. Does anybody know if C# support that? If so,
what's the syntax?

You need to use a Dictionary<TKey ,TValue>:

userData["username"].Electrocardiog ram = 4;

(where userData is defined appropriately, of course).

--
Jon Skeet - <sk***@pobox.co m>
Web site: http://www.pobox.com/~skeet
Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/jon.skeet
C# in Depth: http://csharpindepth.com