Question

I am building graphs. A graph consists of nodes linked each other with links (indeed my dear).
In order to assign a given behavior to each node, I implemented the strategy pattern.

class Node {
    public BaseNodeBehavior Behavior {get; set;}
}

As a result, in many parts of the application, I am extensively using type reflection to know which behavior a node is.

if (node.Behavior is NodeDataOutputBehavior)
    workOnOutputNode(node) ....

My graph can get thousands of nodes.

• Is type reflection greatly affecting performances ?
• Should I use something else than the strategy pattern ?

I’m using strategy because I need behavior inheritance. For example, basically, a behavior can be Data or Operator, a Data behavior can IO, Const or Intermediate and finally an IO behavior can be Input or Output.

So if I use an enumeration, I wont be able to test for a node behavior to be of data kind, I will need to test it to be [Input, Output, Const or Intermediate]. And if later I want to add another behavior of Data kind, I’m screwed, every data-testing method will need to be changed.

Answer 1

if (node.Behavior is NodeDataOutputBehavior) is not reflection and is very fast.