Question

i have this poll class

class Poll
{
    public string question { get; set; }
    public Timer pollTimer { get; set; }
    public List<string> userVoted { get; set; }
    public Dictionary<string, int> choices { get; set; }
    public bool PollRunning { get; set; }

    public Poll(string question,Dictionary<string,int> choices)
    {
        this.question = question;
        this.choices = choices;
        this.pollTimer = new Timer(15000);
        this.PollRunning = true;
        this.userVoted = new List<string>();
    }

    public string pollResults()
    {
        string temp = "";

        foreach (KeyValuePair<string, int> keyValuePair in choices)
        {
            temp = temp + keyValuePair.Key + " " + keyValuePair.Value + ", ";
        }

        return string.Format("Poll Results: {0}", temp);
    }
}

and I have this code in a StartPool method

    static Dictionary<Channel, Poll> polls = new Dictionary<Channel, Poll>();
public void startPool(Channel channel)
{
            polls.Add(channel, new Poll(question, tempdict));
            polls[channel].pollTimer.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(pollTimer_Elapsed);
            polls[channel].pollTimer.Start();
}

When this method gets called

    static void pollTimer_Elapsed(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
    {
        //do stuff to the poll that called this.
    }

I need know what poll object’s timer is calling this method
so I can do polls[channel].pollTimer.Stop(); and do polls[channel].pollResults();

As it is I have no idea which poll stop and post results for when this runs

i’m willing to post entire solution if that will help you help me.

Answer 1

The problem with the way you’ve designed the Poll class is that the Poll class doesn’t completely do its job. You require other classes to know how to start and stop polling, meaning half of the polling implementation is inside the Poll class and half of the implementation is outside the Poll class. If you’re going to create a Poll class, hide ALL the implementation details from everyone else.

Here is what I mean. I would create an event in Poll like this:

public event EventHandler<ElapsedEventArgs> Elapsed;

In Poll’s constructor, add this line:

this.pollTimer.Elapsed += pollTimer_elapsed;

and the pollTimer_elapsed looks like this:

private void pollTimer_elapsed(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
    var han = this.Elapsed;
    if (han != null)
        han(this, e); // Fire the Elapsed event, passing 'this' Poll as the sender
}

Add a new public method in Poll to start the timer:

public void Start()
{
    this.pollTimer.Start();
}

So now your startPool method looks like this:

public void startPool(Channel channel)
{
    polls.Add(channel, new Poll(question, tempdict));
    polls[channel].Elapsed += poll_Elapsed;
    polls[channel].Start();
}

static void poll_Elapsed(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
    //sender is now a Poll object
    var poll = sender as Poll;
    // Now you can do poll.pollTimer.Stop()
    // Or better yet, add a Stop method to the Poll class and call poll.Stop()
}

IMHO this approach is slightly better because the Poll object is hiding more of its implementation from external objects. From startPool’s point of view, the Poll class is simpler to use, and you also don’t require anything outside of your Poll class to know about Timers.