Question

I have a class with the following method.

public cIPLink(int paramCaseNo, int paramIPID, string paramIPReference, int paramContactID)
    {            
        this.cLinkDate = DateTime.Now;
        this.cCaseNo = paramCaseNo;
        this.cIPID = paramIPID;
        this.cIPReference = paramIPReference;
        this.cContactID = paramContactID;

        string strConnect = BuildConnectionString();
        SqlConnection linkToDB = new SqlConnection(strConnect);
        linkToDB.Open();

        string sqlStat = "INSERT INTO tblIPLinks (LinkID, LinkDate, CaseNo, IPID, ContactID, IPReference)" +
                         "VALUES (@LinkID, @LinkDate, @CaseNo, @IPID, @ContactID, @IPReference);";
        SqlCommand sqlCom = new SqlCommand(sqlStat, linkToDB);

        sqlCom.Parameters.Add("@LinkID", SqlDbType.Int);
        sqlCom.Parameters.Add("@LinkDate", SqlDbType.Date);
        sqlCom.Parameters.Add("@CaseNo", SqlDbType.Int);
        sqlCom.Parameters.Add("@IPID", SqlDbType.Int);
        sqlCom.Parameters.Add("@ContactID", SqlDbType.Int);
        sqlCom.Parameters.Add("@IPReference", SqlDbType.Text);

        this.cLinkID = NextLinkID();

        sqlCom.Parameters["@LinkID"].Value = this.cLinkID;
        sqlCom.Parameters["@LinkDate"].Value = this.cLinkDate;
        sqlCom.Parameters["@CaseNo"].Value = this.cCaseNo;
        sqlCom.Parameters["@IPID"].Value = this.cIPID;
        sqlCom.Parameters["@ContactID"].Value = this.cContactID;
        sqlCom.Parameters["@IPReference"].Value = this.cIPReference;

        sqlCom.ExecuteNonQuery();

        linkToDB.Close();
    }

However I want to make this a little more flexible. Sometimes when the method is called I want to drop the field IPID, and sometimes I want to drop the field ContactID. Now I thought about copying and pasting this code and having three overload methods; one with just IPID, one wth just ContactID and a third with both fields, but I’m sure there must be a neater way of doing what I want.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

If you are using dotnet 4.0 and above, you can use optional parameters.

public cIPLink(int paramCaseNo, int paramIPID = -1, 
    string paramIPReference = null, int paramContactID = -1)

So, from that moment on you can invoke it as follows:

cIPLink( paramCaseNo );
cIPLink( paramCaseNo, paramContactID:5 );