Combine two objects into one

Question

I'm preparing to pass values to a method:

 private string BuildMessage(int templateID, string body, object data)

where the data param is an array of name/value pairs. To prepare my values for that data param I need to combine the properties of a strongly typed class with the values of a simple 2d array.

What's the best way to merge those values?

Answer 1

You can easily get the properties and teir values via Reflection, like this:

    public Dictionary<string, string> GetParameters(object data)
    {
        if (data == null)
            return null;

        Dictionary<string, string> parameters = new Dictionary<string, string>();
        foreach (PropertyInfo property in data.GetType().GetProperties())
            parameters.Add(property.Name, property.GetValue(data, null).ToString());
        return parameters;
    }

Merging the two dictionaries shouldn't need further explanation :)