How to access to the parent object in c#

Question

Hi,

I have a "meter" class. One property of "meter" is another class called "production". I need to access to a property of meter class (power rating) from production class by reference. The powerRating is not known at the instantiation of Meter.

How can I do that ?

Thanks in advance

public class Meter
{
   private int _powerRating = 0; 
   private Production _production;

   public Meter()
   {
      _production = new Production();
   }
}

Answer 1

You would need to add a property to your Production class and set it to point back at its parent, this doesn't exist by default.

Answer 2

something like this:

  public int PowerRating
    {
       get { return base.PowerRating; } // if power inherits from meter...
    }

Answer 3

Why not change the constructor on Production to let you pass in a reference at construction time:

public class Meter
{
   private int _powerRating = 0; 
   private Production _production;

   public Meter()
   {
      _production = new Production(this);
   }
}

In the Production constructor you can assign this to a private field or a property. Then Production will always have access to is parent.

Answer 4

Store a reference to the meter instance as a member in Production:

public class Production {
  //The other members, properties etc...
  private Meter m;

  Production(Meter m) {
    this.m = m;
  }
}

And then in the Meter-class:

public class Meter
{
   private int _powerRating = 0; 
   private Production _production;

   public Meter()
   {
      _production = new Production(this);
   }
}

Also note that you need to implement an accessor method/property so that the Production class can actually access the powerRating member of the Meter class.

Answer 5

You could maybe add a method to your Production object called 'SetPowerRating(int)' which sets a property in Production, and call this in your Meter object before using the property in the Production object?