Question

I have code first implementation for flowing hierarchy,

 BaseContact{
   Public int Id{get;set;}
   public string Name{get;set;} 
//..
 }

 Person:BaseContact{

   public string Designation{get;set;} 
//..
 }
Company:BaseContact{
     public int NumOfEmployees{get;set;} 
//..
 }

I want to identify person or company with by using only the Id value? Currently I am using reflection to identify whether it is a person or company. Is there any other way to identify it without doing too much?

Answer 1

In your BaseContact (assume it is an abstract class) add abstract property which will be implemented by other two classes.Use Enum to identify the property type as follows.

 public enum MyType
    {
     Person, 
     Company,
    };

    public abstract class BaseContact{
       public abstract MyType ContactType{get;}   
     }

    public class Person:BaseContact
   {

    public override MyType ContactType
    {
      get
      {
        return MyType.Person;
      }      
    }
   }

public class Company:BaseContact
{
    public override MyType ContactType
    {
      get
       {
         return MyType.Company;
       }  
    } 
 }

Use your BaseContact repository to retrieve entities and use enum for type separation.