Question

I have a WPF-mvvm application.

I need to read an excel file..and create a list of Dto (data transfer objects).

EX:
If below are two types of DTOs
Class A{ // Some properties here} Class B{// Some other properties here}

On run time, I will pass the reference to an excel file…and depending upon from which window I am calling this function I need list of that particular DTO (That means -> List(A) or List(B)).

Can I use function like below (with generics)..?
But How would I know what are the properties in each class at run time ?

 private static IList<T> CreateLookupList<T>(string currentFileName)
        {
            List<T> items = new List<T>();

            Workbook internalWorkBook = Workbook.Load(currentFileName);
                //Create data table for each worksheet
                foreach (Worksheet curWorksheet in internalWorkBook.Worksheets)
            {
            }

            return items;
        }

Answer 1

Your suggested approach would only work if ClassA and ClassB both implemented the same interface, or both descended from the same superclass. If that were the case, you could do something like this:

public interface IWorksheetHandler
{
    void LoadFromWorksheet(Worksheet worksheet);
}

public class DtoLoader
{
     public static IList<T> CreateLookupList<T>(string currentFileName) where T:IWorksheetHandler, new()
     {
          List<T> items = new List<T>();
          Workbook internalWorkBook = Workbook.Load(currentFileName);
          foreach (Worksheet worksheet in internalWorkBook.Worksheets)
          {
              T dto = new T();
              dto.LoadFromWorksheet(worksheet );
              items.Add(dto);
          }
          return items;
      }
}