Question

My dilemma:

• I have a POCO: “ReportSource” that is generic.
• I have a user control wrapping up some report building logic.
• My user control defines a ReportSource property but it will ultimately be the job of the page that calls the user control to assign that ReportSource property.

How can I define the property in my user control without specifying a T? Btw, I tried (just for larks) to make the user control generic… That ended badly.

public ReportSource<T> ReportSource {get; set;}

(Note that I’ve tagged this as C# and VB.net… C# is my norm, but I’m having to deal w/ legacy… An answer in either is appreciated)

Answer 1

Could you move the T specific logic inside a non-generic ReportSource? This “delays” the need to specify T until the caller needs T specifically or until ReportSource needs T. In other words, ReportSource will have generic methods taking T or would otherwise encapsulate or hide T altogether.