Question

I want to add new properties to an object based on loop iterations, is this possible in .Net? The reason I want to do this is I am looping through rows in an excel spreadsheet and for every successfully read row I want to create a new dynamic object property. So when the loop is complete I can simply pass the object to a method and log all the records.

See below for code so far:

    protected void ReadData(string filePath, bool upload)
    {
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

        #region upload
        if (upload == true) // CSV file upload chosen
        {

            using (CsvReader csv = new CsvReader(new StreamReader(filePath), true)) // Cache CSV file to memory
            {
                int fieldCount = csv.FieldCount; // Total number of fields per row
                string[] headers = csv.GetFieldHeaders(); // Correct CSV headers stored in array 

                SortedList<int, string> errorList = new SortedList<int, string>(); // This list will contain error values
                ORCData data = new ORCData();

                bool errorFlag = false;
                int errorCount = 0;

                // Check if headers are correct first before reading data
                if (headers[0] != "first name" || headers[1] != "last name" || headers[2] != "job title" || headers[3] != "email address" || headers[4] != "telephone number" || headers[5] != "company" || headers[6] != "research manager" || headers[7] != "user card number")
                {
                    sb.Append("Headers are incorrect");
                }

                else
                {
                    while (csv.ReadNextRecord())
                        try
                        {
                            //Check csv obj data for valid values
                            for (int i = 0; i < fieldCount; i++)
                            {
                                if (i == 0 || i == 1) // FirstName and LastName
                                {
                                    if (Regex.IsMatch(csv[i].ToString(), "^[a-z]+$", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase) == false) //REGEX letters only min of 5 char max of 20
                                    {
                                        errorList.Add(errorCount, csv[i]);
                                        errorCount += 1;
                                        errorFlag = true;
                                        string text = csv[i].ToString();
                                    }
                                }
                            }

                            if (errorFlag == true)
                            {
                                sb.Append("<b>" + "Number of Error: " + errorCount + "</b>");
                                sb.Append("<ul>");
                                foreach (KeyValuePair<int, string> key in errorList)
                                {
                                    sb.Append("<li>" + key.Value + "</li>");
                                }
                            }
                            else // All validation checks equaled to false. Create User
                            {

                                string message = ORCLdap.CreateUserAccount(rootLDAPPath, svcUsername, svcPassword, csv[0], csv[1], csv[2], csv[3], csv[4], csv[5], csv[7]);
                                // TODO: Add to object here
                                sb.Append(message);
                                //sb.Append("<b>New user data uploaded successfully</b>");
                            }

                        }// end of try



                        catch (Exception ex)
                        {
                            sb.Append(ex.ToString());
                        }

                        finally
                        {
                            lblMessage.Text = sb.ToString();
                            sb.Remove(0, sb.Length);
                            hdnRdoSelection.Value = "1";
                        }
                }
            }

        }
        #endregion

I have never tried to do this before so I am not sure how I would approach it but any help would be great. Thanks.

Answer 1

I want to add new properties to an object based on loop iterations, is this possible in .Net?

Sort of. You probably want to use ExpandoObject, treating it as an IDictionary<string, object> when you’re adding the properties.

Having said that, if you’re not going to try to use those properties as properties later, do you actually need them to be properties at all? Why not just use a Dictionary<string, object> to start with?