Question

public enum RelationType { Subclass, HasArm, HasLeg };
public RelationType RelationShipType { get; set; }

public static IOwlRelation AddSubClassRelation(IOwlClass parent, IOwlClass child)
{
    return new OwlRelation
    {
        Parent = parent,
        Child = child,
        RelationShipType = RelationType.Subclass
    };
}

So let’s say this was in a OwlRelation class and now in the consumer class first I create a OwlRelation object by saying like

OwlRelation r1 = OwlRelation.AddSubClassRelation( someParent, someChild);

and also have a method like AddRelation(OwlRelation) that I can pass that r1 object to it, now in the body of this method I can check and see what was the value of the enumeration on this object and some stuff based on that value.

So that’s the reason I have defined that Enumeration type in the OwlRelation class. BUT I think this is not the correct way of axchieving this and prob I just don’t have enough expertise to figure it out. So what do you think is the correct way of doing this?

Answer 1

You could implement different relation types as different classes.

public abstract class OwlRelation : IOwlRelation
{
    // Implement infrastructure common to all relation types
}

public SubclassOwlRelation : OwlRelation
{
    // Implement things specific to Subclass-relations
}

public HasArmOwlRelation : OwlRelation
{
    // Implement things specific to HasArm-relations
}

...

With your implementation you are likely to run into code like this one

switch (relation.RelationshipType) {
    case RelationshipType.Subclass:
        DoSomeSubclassStuff(relation);
        break;
    case RelationshipType.HasArm:
        DoSomeArmStuff(relation);
        break;
    case RelationshipType.HasLeg:
        DoSomeLegStuff(relation);
        break;
}

With an object-oriented approach the corresponding code looks like this

relation.DoSomeStuff();