Question

I have a complex class whose fields can be lists dictionaries and any other classes. Some basic data types are int , bool, string or some enums. I need to created a functions that takes an instance of that class and a string and return true or false depending if there is a mentioning of the string.

public class Record
  {
    public Dictionary<string,int> Counts { get; set; }
    public Dictionary<string,list<string>> Syns {get; set;}
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public KeyValuePair<string,KeyValuePair<string,bool>> Stuff { get; set; }
    //etc 
  }

Here is what the method should do

   public static bool IsValuePresent(Object o, string keyword)
     {
       //cycle through all possible string values of o and check if keyword is present. 
       //return true if so, otherwise false
     } 

possible call:

 Record record = dbAccess.GetCurrent();
 bool flag = IsValuePresent(record, "Name");

Remark: can use ToJSON but this will verify if "name" is present among names of of object properties, but it should only verify values.

Answer 1

You should be able to use recursion and use System.Reflection. Here is a good post:

Reflection – Iterate object's properties recursively within my own assemblies (Vb.Net/3.5)

Look at:

foreach (PropertyInfo pi in o.GetType().GetProperties())