How to pass in Type

Question

User-284642143 posted

I have a couple of separate XMLs being requested depending on the requirement i.e.

First request - Get all stores
Second request - For each store get all employees
Third request - For all employees get their personal details
etc

For each XML I'm generating a class from an online tool, so i can deserialise the XML. I have one procedure which makes the call and then i deserialise the XML with the below

private void GetData(string strXML, Type XmlType)
{
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(Stores));
StringReader rdr = new StringReader(strXml);
Stores resultingMessage = (Stores)serializer.Deserialize(rdr); 
}

This works as expected, the class generates the data etc but i want to be able to reuse this code and pass in a different type (so Stores, would then have the relevant XML passed in but this time i would pass in Employees type). I added Type XmlType and tried to pass that in but it throws a compile error "The type or namespace name 'XmlType' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)".

Is it possible to have a different type passed in or a better way to write this?

Answer 1

User-284642143 posted

Just figured out i could do 

if (XmlType == typeof(Stores))....

If anyone has any better ways im happy to mark as answer

Answer 2

User475983607 posted

Generic methods solve this problem.

        private static T GetData<T>(string strXML)
        {
            XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
            StringReader rdr = new StringReader(strXML);
            T obj = (T)serializer.Deserialize(rdr);
            return obj;
        }

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/programming-guide/generics/

Answer 3

User-284642143 posted

Great this looks much better.

Answer 4

User475983607 posted

Note the different property within each class - i thought this would error but it didnt, does this structure look ok as is or could i make a different design decision here? My concern here is how would the program know which Store class i am referring to? I know i can test this but in case i can avoid any bad designs it would help

There are two options; namespace or inheritance.

A unique namespace make the type unique.  With inheritance the class names are unique while the classes share members.