Question

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C# – Is there a better alternative than this to ‘switch on type’?

If you want to switch on a type of object, what is the best way to do this?

Code snippet

private int GetNodeType(NodeDTO node) {     switch (node.GetType())     {          case typeof(CasusNodeDTO):             return 1;         case typeof(BucketNodeDTO):             return 3;         case typeof(BranchNodeDTO):             return 0;         case typeof(LeafNodeDTO):             return 2;         default:             return -1;     } } 

I know this doesn’t work that way, but I was wondering how you could solve this. Is an if/else statement appropriate in this case?

Or do you use the switch and add .ToString() to the type?

Answer 1

If I really had to switch on type of object, I’d use .ToString(). However, I would avoid it at all costs: IDictionary<Type, int> will do much better, visitor might be an overkill but otherwise it is still a perfectly fine solution.