Adding values to a Dictionary using reflection.

Question

I have a class

class a
{  
    private Dictionary <int , string> m_Dict = new Dictionary<int , string>();
}

from some other component/class need to add values to the m_Dict dictionary using reflection! How do i do it ? i searched and tried but was not successfull.

Answer 1

Dictionary is a pain, since it doesn't implement IList (something I was moaning about just the other evening). It really comes down to what you have available. Resolving the Add method for int/string is easy enough, but if you are dealing with typical list reflection you'll need the Add method from ICollection<KeyValuePair<int,string>>.

For standard usage:

object data = new Dictionary<int, string>();
object key = 123;
object value = "abc";
var add = data.GetType().GetMethod("Add", new[] {
          key.GetType(), value.GetType() });
add.Invoke(data, new object[] { key, value });

Answer 2

I assume you want to access the private member "m_Dict"?

a x = new a();

Dictionary dic = (Dictionary) x.GetType()
                  .GetField("m_Dict",BindingFlags.NonPublic|BindingFlags.Instance)
                  .GetValue(x);

// do something with "dic"

But this is VERY bad design