Question

In my scenario, I have two types of objects. A plan and a tier. Each one shares certain values, while the tier has 3 additional values (Rate, Min, and Max).

I would like to make a generic method to conditionally evaluate whether or not the new object can be written to the database, based on the following conditions:

Creation:

1. A tier: ((o1.Rate!=o2.Rate) || ((o1.Start!=o2.Start) && (o1.End!=o2.End))) && (MinVal && MaxVal)
2. A tier or plan: (o1.Name!=o2.Name)
3. A tier or plan: Only one can have (Active == true), the rest must be false.

Is it possible to create a generic method for something like this? If so, are there any examples of something like this? Or does anyone have suggestions?

thanks!

MORE:
So I have a list of objects, and I need to compare a newly created one with each other object in the database before I actually write it to the database.

Answer 1

In order for this to work, the generic method (or type) would need a constraint that allowed it to understand all of the individual properties you have listed (Rate, Date, MinVal, MaxValue, Start, and End).

If all of the types which you are worried about derive from the same base class or interface, you don’t need generics – just build a method that takes two arguments of that base type.

If, however, they don’t, again, generics will likely not be a good fit here – however, there is another option. You could use dynamic to effectively use these properties using runtime binding. Just realize that, if you pass an argument of a type without those properties, it will fail at runtime.