C#, get all collection properties from an object

Question

Hi,

I have a class with 3 List collections like the following.

I am trying to have a logic which will iterate through the object's "collection" properties and do some operation using the data stored in those collections.

I am just wondering if there is an easy way of doing it using foreach. thanks

public class SampleChartData
    {
        public List<Point> Series1 { get; set; }
        public List<Point> Series2 { get; set; }
        public List<Point> Series3 { get; set; }

        public SampleChartData()
        {
            Series1 = new List<Point>();
            Series2 = new List<Point>();
            Series3 = new List<Point>();
        }
    }

Answer 1

I'm not entirely certain what you're trying to do, but perhaps something like this?

List<List<Point>> listOLists = new List<List<Point>>;
listOLists.Add(Series1);
listOLists.Add(Series2);
listOLists.Add(Series3);

foreach(List<Point> sublist in listOLists)
{
    foreach(Point in sublist)
    {
       // Do Something
    }
}

Answer 2

Use Reflection to get the objects Properties. Then iterate over those to see is IEnumerable<T>. Then iterate over the IEnumerable properties

Answer 3

Function to get all IEnumerable<T> from object:

public static IEnumerable<IEnumerable<T>> GetCollections<T>(object obj)
{
    if(obj == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("obj");
    var type = obj.GetType();
    var res = new List<IEnumerable<T>>();
    foreach(var prop in type.GetProperties())
    {
        // is IEnumerable<T>?
        if(typeof(IEnumerable<T>).IsAssignableFrom(prop.PropertyType))
        {
            var get = prop.GetGetMethod();
            if(!get.IsStatic && get.GetParameters().Length == 0) // skip indexed & static
            {
                var collection = (IEnumerable<T>)get.Invoke(obj, null);
                if(collection != null) res.Add(collection);
            }
        }
    }
    return res;
}

Then you can use something like

var data = new SampleChartData();
foreach(var collection in GetCollections<Point>(data))
{
    foreach(var point in collection)
    {
        // do work
    }
}

to iterate through all elements.

Answer 4

You can use reflection to get the list of properties from the object. This example gets all the properties and prints their name and Count to the console:

public static void PrintSeriesList()
{
    SampleChartData myList = new SampleChartData();

    PropertyInfo[] Fields = myList.GetType().GetProperties();

    foreach(PropertyInfo field in Fields)
    {
        var currentField =  field.GetValue(myList, null);
        if (currentField.GetType() == typeof(List<Point>))
        {
            Console.WriteLine("List {0} count {1}", field.Name, ((List<Point>)currentField).Count);
        }
    }
}

Answer 5

Hi,

Just found a quick solution, but maybe some of you have better ways of doing it. this is what I did.

SampleChartData myData = DataFeed.GetData();
Type sourceType = typeof(SampleChartData);
foreach (PropertyInfo pi in (sourceType.GetProperties()))
{
    if (pi.GetValue(myData, null).GetType() == typeof(List<Point>))
    {
        List<Point> currentSeriesData = (List<Point>)pi.GetValue(myData, null);

        // then do something with the data
    }
}