Question

switch(ID)
{
    case "CustomReportsContainer":
        foreach (var report in SessionRepository.Instance.CustomReports.ToList())
        {
            var reportItem = new RadListBoxItem(report.Name, report.ID.ToString());
            if (!Items.Any(item => int.Equals(item.Value, reportItem.Value)))
            {
                Items.Add(reportItem);
            }
        }
        break;
    case "HistoricalReportsContainer":
        foreach (var report in SessionRepository.Instance.HistoricalReports.ToList())
        {
            var reportItem = new RadListBoxItem(report.Name, report.ID.ToString());
            if (!Items.Any(item => int.Equals(item.Value, reportItem.Value)))
            {
                Items.Add(reportItem);
            }
        }
        break;
}

HistoricalReports and CustomReports are collections of different types, but I am interested in the same two properties from each object type. I thought that I should be able to use LINQ’s Select, and create a list of anonymously typed objects.

I can’t create an implicitly typed variable without assigning to it, though. And since I’m inside of a Switch statement’s scope… I can’t assign to var inside of the switch statement, then move the rest of the code outside of the switch statement.

How should I express this code? Is the current implementantion ‘best’?

Uggh, close. Can I do anything with this? It’s through our API so I can’t modify any deeper.

ReportServices.GetAllCustomReports().Select(report => new { report.Name, report.ID} ).ToList().ForEach(customReport => _customReports.Add(customReport));

Error   2   Argument 1: cannot convert from 'AnonymousType#1' to 'CableSolve.Web.Dashboard.IReport'

Answer 1

CustomReport and HistoricalReport should implement an IReport interface that contains the Id and Name properties (at minimum).

switch(ID)
{
    case "CustomReportsContainer":
        AddReportItems(SessionRepository.Instance.CustomReports);
        break;
    case "HistoricalReportsContainer":
        AddReportItems(SessionRepository.Instance.HistoricalReports);
        break;
}

private void AddReportItems(IEnumerable<IReport> reports)
{
    foreach (var report in reports)
    {
        var reportItem = new RadListBoxItem(report.Name, report.ID.ToString());
        if (!Items.Any(item => int.Equals(item.Value, reportItem.Value)))
        {
            Items.Add(reportItem);
        }
    }
}

Edit

In response to your additional questions, would it be possible for GetAllCustomReports to return a type that implements the IReport interface? This would eliminate the need for projecting to an anonymous type via Select(report => new { report.Name, report.ID} ) and should resolve the remaining issue.