Question

the following function needs to look inside the input object if there is a property in it that returns a custom object it needs to do the trimming of that object as well. The code below works for the input object fine, but wont recursively look into a property that returns a custom object and do the trimming process.

public object TrimObjectValues(object instance)
{
    var props = instance.GetType().GetProperties(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Public)
                // Ignore non-string properties
                .Where(prop => prop.PropertyType == typeof(string) | prop.PropertyType == typeof(object))
                // Ignore indexers
                .Where(prop => prop.GetIndexParameters().Length == 0)
                // Must be both readable and writable
                .Where(prop => prop.CanWrite && prop.CanRead);

    foreach (PropertyInfo prop in props)
    {
        if (prop.PropertyType == typeof(string))
        {
            string value = (string)prop.GetValue(instance, null);
            if (value != null)
            {
                value = value.Trim();
                prop.SetValue(instance, value, null);
            }
        }
        else if (prop.PropertyType == typeof(object))
        {
            TrimObjectValues(prop);
        }
    }

    return instance;
}

I need to change this somehow to look for other objects inside the initial object

.Where(prop => prop.PropertyType == typeof(string) | prop.PropertyType == typeof(object))

This code isn’t working reason is for a example is the object I am passing as input has a property that returns a type of “Address” therefore typeof(object) never gets hit.

Here is a tree of data to test against pass the function “o” in this case

        Order o = new Order();

    o.OrderUniqueIdentifier = "TYBDEU83e4e4Ywow";

    o.VendorName = "Kwhatever";
    o.SoldToCustomerID = "Abc98971";
    o.OrderType = OrderType.OnOrBefore;
    o.CustomerPurchaseOrderNumber = "MOOMOO 56384";
    o.EmailAddress = "[e-mail]";
    o.DeliveryDate = DateTime.Now.AddDays(35);

    Address address1 = new Address();
    //address1.AddressID = "Z0mmn01034";
    address1.AddressID = "E0000bbb6                         ";
    address1.OrganizationName = "                                       Nicks Organization ";
    address1.AddressLine1 = "              143 E. WASHINGTON STREET                ";
    address1.City = "          Rock        ";
    address1.State = "MA                       ";
    address1.ZipCode = "                         61114";
    address1.Country = "US                ";

    o.ShipToAddress = address1;

Answer 1

Your tests with typeof(object) will all fail.

Try like this:

static void TrimObjectValues(object instance)
{
    // if the instance is null we have nothing to do here
    if (instance == null)
    {
        return;
    }

    var props = instance
        .GetType()
        .GetProperties(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Public)
        // Ignore indexers
        .Where(prop => prop.GetIndexParameters().Length == 0)
        // Must be both readable and writable
        .Where(prop => prop.CanWrite && prop.CanRead);

    foreach (PropertyInfo prop in props)
    {
        if (prop.PropertyType == typeof(string))
        {
            // if we have a string property we trim it
            string value = (string)prop.GetValue(instance, null);
            if (value != null)
            {
                value = value.Trim();
                prop.SetValue(instance, value, null);
            }
        }
        else
        {
            // if we don't have a string property we recurse
            TrimObjectValues(prop.GetValue(instance, null));
        }
    }
}

I have also made the function return no value because you are modifying the argument instance anyway.

Test case:

public enum OrderType
{
    OnOrBefore
}

public class Order
{
    public string OrderUniqueIdentifier { get; set; }
    public string VendorName { get; set; }
    public string SoldToCustomerID { get; set; }
    public OrderType OrderType { get; set; }
    public string CustomerPurchaseOrderNumber { get; set; }
    public string EmailAddress { get; set; }
    public DateTime DeliveryDate { get; set; }
    public Address ShipToAddress { get; set; }
}

public class Address
{
    public string AddressID { get; set; }
    public string OrganizationName { get; set; }
    public string AddressLine1 { get; set; }
    public string City { get; set; }
    public string State { get; set; }
    public string ZipCode { get; set; }
    public string Country { get; set; }
}

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        Order o = new Order();

        o.OrderUniqueIdentifier = "TYBDEU83e4e4Ywow";

        o.VendorName = "Kwhatever";
        o.SoldToCustomerID = "Abc98971";
        o.OrderType = OrderType.OnOrBefore;
        o.CustomerPurchaseOrderNumber = "MOOMOO 56384";
        o.EmailAddress = "[e-mail]";
        o.DeliveryDate = DateTime.Now.AddDays(35);

        Address address1 = new Address();
        //address1.AddressID = "Z0mmn01034";
        address1.AddressID = "E0000bbb6                         ";
        address1.OrganizationName = "                                       Nicks Organization ";
        address1.AddressLine1 = "              143 E. WASHINGTON STREET                ";
        address1.City = "          Rock        ";
        address1.State = "MA                       ";
        address1.ZipCode = "                         61114";
        address1.Country = "US                ";

        o.ShipToAddress = address1;


        TrimObjectValues(o);
    }

    static void TrimObjectValues(object instance)
    {
        if (instance == null)
        {
            return;
        }

        var props = instance
            .GetType()
            .GetProperties(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Public)
            // Ignore indexers
            .Where(prop => prop.GetIndexParameters().Length == 0)
            // Must be both readable and writable
            .Where(prop => prop.CanWrite && prop.CanRead);

        foreach (PropertyInfo prop in props)
        {
            if (prop.PropertyType == typeof(string))
            {
                string value = (string)prop.GetValue(instance, null);
                if (value != null)
                {
                    value = value.Trim();
                    prop.SetValue(instance, value, null);
                }
            }
            else
            {
                TrimObjectValues(prop.GetValue(instance, null));
            }
        }
    }
}

---

UPDATE 2:

It seems that you want to handle also lists of objects. You could adapt the method:

static void TrimObjectValues(object instance)
{
    if (instance == null)
    {
        return;
    }

    var props = instance
        .GetType()
        .GetProperties(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Public)
        // Ignore indexers
        .Where(prop => prop.GetIndexParameters().Length == 0)
        // Must be both readable and writable
        .Where(prop => prop.CanWrite && prop.CanRead);

    if (instance is IEnumerable)
    {
        foreach (var element in (IEnumerable)instance)
        {
            TrimObjectValues(element);
        }
        return;
    }

    foreach (PropertyInfo prop in props)
    {
        if (prop.PropertyType == typeof(string))
        {
            string value = (string)prop.GetValue(instance, null);
            if (value != null)
            {
                value = value.Trim();
                prop.SetValue(instance, value, null);
            }
        }
        else
        {
            TrimObjectValues(prop.GetValue(instance, null));
        }
    }
}