Question

If I have the following method;

private TSource CopyFileClientModel<TSource>(TSource fileClientOrContact)

So into this method I can pass in either a FileClient or FileContact model.

Both have a single property called Contact which is also a model as well as some other properties not common between the two.

Now I want to get that Contact model from the passed in model.

Contact sourceContact = fileClientOrContact.Contact;

However, given this is a generic, it doesn’t know that there is a Contact object within TSource.

My restriction is that I cannot place an interface against either FileClient or FileContact. I basically can’t touch either of those models.

How can I get the Contact object from TSource? Can I use reflection somehow?

Answer 1

You can pass along a function to return the Contact.

For example:

private FileClient CopyFileClientModel(FileClient fileClient) {
    return this.CopyFileClientModel(fileClient, c => c.Client);
}

private FileContact CopyFileClientModel(FileContact fileContact) {
    return this.CopyFileClientModel(fileContact, c => c.Client);
}

private TSource CopyFileClientModel<TSource>(TSource fileClientOrContact, Func<TSource, Contact> contactGetter) {
    var contact = contactGetter(fileClientOrContact);
    // Whatever else...
}