C# - Using different types of object as function parameter

Question

I´m writing a function which parses JSON and may return different types of objects. Say, I´m parsing an bird json and want to return a bird object, then a tiger json and want to get a tiger object insted.

How can I do this? Should I use a dynamic object? And, if this is the answer, HOW?

I don´t want to overload the logic on each type of object I´d want to get from it.

Thanks in advance,

Ariel

Do you know the type of object you expect to be returned when you call the method? — jmcilhinney
– jmcilhinney, Commented Apr 8, 2014 at 4:16
@astander Yep! I'd definitely use Generics too. Probably a single Parse<T> method. — Pierre-Luc Pineault
– Pierre-Luc Pineault, Commented Apr 8, 2014 at 4:17

dvlsg · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-08 04:26:52Z

1

Are you using JSON.NET? Generics seem to be the right answer, at any rate. Something like this:

public T CreateAnimal<T>(string json) {
    return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<T>(json);
}

Note that in order to use this, you would have to know ahead of time which type of object you would expect in the json, so you can call it like this:

Tiger t = CreateAnimal<Tiger>(tigerJson);

answered Apr 8, 2014 at 4:26

dvlsg

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3 Comments

ferroariel Over a year ago

Thank you dvlsg, I´ll give it a try and let you know

ferroariel Over a year ago

Should I use T.GetType() from within CreateAnimal function to discover the type of T ?

dvlsg Over a year ago

Possibly. May I ask what you are using to parse your JSON, or are you attempting to write the parsing code yourself? If you are using JSON.NET (which I highly recommend), then the call to JsonConvert.DeserializeObject will take all of the matching properties from the JSON string and place them on the object for you -- in this case, a Tiger object.

Adam Caviness · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-08 04:20:26Z

0

To prevent bloated code, you could instantiate your animal objects convention-based:

Activator.CreateInstance("YourAssemblyNameContainingAnimalTypes", animalString);

answered Apr 8, 2014 at 4:20

Adam Caviness

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