Question

Taking the following sample:

I want to add a property to PreferenceOption called DataType because different instances of PreferenceOption could be bool or string etc.

Is there a way to do this? If yes, how?

I was thinking something like public ValueType DataType { get; set; }, but when creating instances of PreferenceOption like:

PreferenceOption WantsHouse = new PreferenceOption () { PreferenceOption = "Want House?", Weighting = Weighting.Low, Type = bool };

This doesn’t work, but should give a good idea of what I want to do.

Any suggestions?

EDIT (ANSWER): using the selected answer below, here’s what I’m now using (apologies for blurry image!):

public enum Weighting { One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten }

public class TenantPropertyPreferenceOption<T>
{
    public T PreferenceOption { get; set; }
    public Weighting Weighting { get; set; }
}

public class TenantPropertyPreferenceOptions
{
    TenantPropertyPreferenceOption<bool> WantsHouse = new TenantPropertyPreferenceOption<bool> () { PreferenceOption = false, Weighting = Weighting.One };
    // ...
}

Answer 1

Use a generic class;

public class PreferenceOption<T>
{
    public T PreferenceOption {get;set;}
    public string PreferenceOptionName {get;set;}
}

PreferenceOption WantsHouse = new PreferenceOption<bool> () { PreferenceOption = true, Weighting = Weighting.Low, PreferenceOptionName ="asd"};

PreferenceOption WantsHouse2 = new PreferenceOption<string> () { PreferenceOption = "this is a string", Weighting = Weighting.Low, PreferenceOptionName="qwe"};