Question

Hi I’m new to OOP and I need help on a little problem.
I used a collection called Monsters to store 3 types of object. Spiders, Farmers, Gollum(irrelevant).
My collection as an indexer but when I use it to get an object out of the collection the object is typeless but I really need to TypeCast my next opperation.

    private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        CurrentOpponent Opponent = new CurrentOpponent();
        Gollum myGollum = new Gollum();
        AngryFarmer myFarmer = new AngryFarmer();
        Ugly_Spider mySpider = new Ugly_Spider();
        myMonsters.AddGollum(myGollum);
        myMonsters.AddFarmer(myFarmer);
        myMonsters.AddUgly(mySpider);
        progressBar1.Increment(100);
        progressBar2.Increment(100);
        Monster myCurrentOpponent = Opponent.randomEncounter();
        //textBox1.Text = (this is where i need the type for a cast)myCurrentOpponent.name
    }

Here is the randomEncounter where i extract the object

    class CurrentOpponent
    {
        public Monster randomEncounter()
        {
            Random _random = new Random();
            int opp = _random.Next(4);
            return myMonsters[opp];

        }

And finally the indexer wich returns a monster (parent of all 3 monster types)

    public Monster this[int xxx]
    {
        get
        {
            return (Monster)List[xxx];
        }
    }

Help would be really appreciated..!!
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Ideally, AngryFarmer, Ugly_Spider and Gollum should all inherit from Monster:

public class AngryFarmer : Monster
{
    // ...
}
// etc.

You could then just use a List<Monster>:

myMonsters = new List<Monster>();
myMonsters.Add(new AngryFarmer()); // works because AngryFarmer is a kind of Monster

This will allow you to use polymorphism.