Using C#, is it possible to access the content of a variable whose name is stored in another string variable?
eg.
string str ="ABCDEFG";
string variable = "str";
How could I access the value of str using variable?
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msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms173183(v=vs.100).aspxAdriaan Stander– Adriaan Stander2012-08-25 04:56:05 +00:00Commented Aug 25, 2012 at 4:56
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Use Reflection for this.Nikhil Agrawal– Nikhil Agrawal2012-08-25 05:19:18 +00:00Commented Aug 25, 2012 at 5:19
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2 Answers
you probably can, but that's too complicated. Have you thought of using the Dictionary class?
Dictionary<string,string> myDictionary = new Dictionary<string,string>();
myDictionary["str"] = "ABCDEF";
var valueinstr = myDictionary["str"];
4 Comments
Rohit Chaudhari
what if the datatypes are different?
Jason Dam
you can use a HashTable then. That stores objects.
Nikhil Agrawal
@JasonDam: Can't he use
Dictionary<object, object>?Jason Dam
yes he can, depending on the number of elements, using dictionary vs hash will be more or less the same, performance not considering. For the purist, Dictionary<object,object> will do an extra boxing/unboxing on the string. Oh well.
Yes you can by using reflection.
var fieldInfo = this.GetType().GetField(variable);
string theValue = (string)fieldInfo.GetValue(this);
With the reflection approach you get an object that describes the property, then you use it to retrieve the value from a specific instance of a class. If your property is not public then you will have to specify the correct BindingFlags when you get the PropertyInfo. If you are using a variable like in your example then you need to retrieve a FieldInfo object (another example).
2 Comments
Rohit Chaudhari
@slugster am getting the error: Keyword 'this' is not valid in a static property, static method or static field initializer
slugster
@Rohit then use
typeof(MyClass) instead of this.GetType() as you cannot use this in a static class.