c# Generic property

Question

I am trying to make a class in C# that can be used to return data of any types.

public class ResponseObject { public <T> data { get;set } public Boolean Success { get; set; } public string Message { get; set; } }

The Object will be a wrapper for the response object when my application sends a request to the API.

i have tried researching this but cannot find any tutorials which are relevant to what i am trying to do.

Is this possible in C#? the Response Object will be converted to a JSON string and then sent as a response.

I will not be doing any processing of this object as that will already by done. I just want to place the data inside the ResponseObject and send it

I want to do something along the lines of:

var customers = repository.GetCustomers(); var orders = repository.GetOrders(); if(customers) { success = true; message = ""; } else{ success = false; message = "failed to get customers"; } if(orders) { orderssuccess = true; ordersmessage = ""; } else{ orderssuccess = false; ordersmessage = "failed to get orders"; } ResponseObject customerResponse = new ResponseObject{ data = customers, success = success, message = message }; ResponseObject orderResponse = new ResponseObject{ data = orders, success = orderssuccess, message = ordersmessage };

"Is this possible in C#?" - what exactly? Careful with phrases like "cannot find any tutorials" - asking for tutorial is offtopic. — Sinatr
– Sinatr, Commented Jul 10, 2018 at 9:49
You probably need to write a generic method called GetData instead. — Sweeper
– Sweeper, Commented Jul 10, 2018 at 9:50
Cheers for all your responses. I typed up an example of what i want to do and had a load of replies when i refreshed — vmp
– vmp, Commented Jul 10, 2018 at 9:54

Markus Dresch · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-10 09:50:10Z

You need to add <T> to the class and use T as the type of your property.

public class ResponseObject<T> { public T data { get; set; } public Boolean Success { get; set; } public string Message { get; set; } }

Sнаđошƒаӽ · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-10 09:51:04Z

You have almost done it already! Just change your <T> to T.

public class ResponseObject<T> where T : class { public T data { get; set; } public Boolean Success { get; set; } public string Message { get; set; } }

Here where T : class ensure that the generic type parameter is a reference type. From your question it seems you are going to pass in an object there.

Sergey Kalinichenko · Accepted Answer · 2018-07-10 10:01:50Z

You have two options here:

Make the class generic, or
Use generic methods for accessing the property

Here are the examples of both approaches:

// Make the class generic public class ResponseObject<T> { public T Data { get; set } public Boolean Success { get; set; } public string Message { get; set; } } // Use generic methods to access the property public class ResponseObject { private object data; public T GetData<T>() { return (T)data; } public void SetData<T>(T newData) { data = newData; } public Boolean Success { get; set; } public string Message { get; set; } }

Second approach is less robust than the first one - basically, it's a glorified unrestricted cast. First approach, however, does not let you build a container of ResponseObjects with different Ts. You can address this problem by adding an interface on top of ResponseObject:

interface IResponseObject { object DataObj { get; set } Type ObjType { get; } bool Success { get; set; } string Message { get; set; } } public class ResponseObject<T> { public T Data { get; set } public ObjType => typeof(T); public DataObj { get => Data; set => Data = value; // C# 7 syntax } public Boolean Success { get; set; } public string Message { get; set; } }

What exactly is the reason for the SetData and GetData methods, when we can do that with just the property? Just curious
@Sнаđошƒаӽ The reason is exactly that you cannot do it with just the property without making the class generic (think of a collection of ResponseObjects with different Ts).
Didn't think of ResponseObjects with different Ts. So yeah, in such cases yours is the way to do it.

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