Question

I am in need of creating a dynamically extend-able class in C#.
The goal is to create a class what can contain all info from a given contact from an Android SQLite Contacts table. The table’s structure is kinda weird, as it does not have set field names, but uses colums of ‘field name’ and ‘field content’.

That’s what I want to turn into a usable format where the code reads the database, and for each entry creates the matching sub-variable. Such I want to know the best method to do so (I guess a simple

{
    this.(variableNames[i].ToString()) = variableContent[i];
}

will not do it), what is the least resource-eating, but fastest (and easiest) way.

And also if we are here, is there ANY method to call a type’s (let’s say, I create a new Contact with e-mail, workplace, name, and image tags, but these variables names’ are unknown) ALL sub-variables (Contact.image, Contact.FirstName, Contact.Email, etc) dynamically?

Of course there will be standardized fields what should be in ALL contact (one of the three names, phone number, e-mail @work and @home, and such), but these should be called dynamically too.

Answer 1

Use a Dictionary<string,string> instead.

Dictionary<string,string> contactInfo = new Dictionary<string,string>();

public void ImportContact()
{
    ...
    // for each fieldName and fieldValue from your table
    contactInfo.Add(fieldName, fieldValue);
    ...
    // check that all standard fields are present, if desired
}

public string FirstName
{
    get { return contactInfo["FirstName"]; }
}