Question

Hello friends i am to add optional parameter to pass these in a method the parameter may vary every time.
And i need to pass these parameter to a method, so my question is how should i add these optional parameter to a collection and what kind of collection object should i use and how should i use that.

i elaborate here, i am having following fields.

1)course field(a drop down list) and on selected index change of course a check box list of corresponding branches are visible now i can select branches of choice by putting check mark on check boxes.(both course and branch are compulsory fields)
2)pass_out year which is a compulsory field.(a text field)
3)education gap which is optional so the text box may be empty as well and may having a digit as well.
4)required first year percent, second year, third year, final year, current degree, high school, senior secondary, gradation, post graduation, diploma percent, birth date which are all optional so these fields may also be empty or having a digit in the text box.
5) current backlog(a drop down list)having choices all, yes , no.
6)number of ATKT text box which may also be empty or can have a digit.

So i want to store all these variables value to some collection of object which will passed to a different method by passing all these variable from here,
But i am unable to figure out how should i store these optional variable to some object and how should i pass them to other method where all variable values will be taken out and an appropriate query will be written to interact with the data base to get the data table.
please elucidate me on this please. I am really not getting a feasible solution, i have thought of few options which i can let you know if you demand but those all seems to be tedious and difficult and redundant so i see help from you.

Answer 1

Don’t bother with optional parameters or some collection of parameters, just decide how you will represent each value best, including how to represent empty values.

For a string value you can just use a null reference or an empty string. For a numeric value you can use a nullable int (int?). For a list of checkboxes where none is selected you can send an empty list.

When figuring out how to use this in a query to the database, it’s easier if you have the values as parameters that always exist even if the values represent an empty value, rather than to have to parse out parameters from a collection where a parameter might be missing. Also, as you have different data types it’s better if you can use an appropriate data type for each parameter, instead of casting everything into the same mold just to fit in a collection.