Comparing type

lsconyer

Can anyone tell me how to compare two objects by testing if they are the same type? I know this doesn't work but I wish it would work like this: private bool ActivateForm(Form form) { bool formIsOpen = false; //loop through child forms to see if the form is already open foreach (Form childForm in this.MdiChildren) { //if the childForm is the parameter type, activate it and break the loop if (childForm.Type == form.Type) { childForm.Activate(); formIsOpen = true; break; } } return formIsOpen; } Lester http://www.lestersconyers.com

led mike

lsconyer wrote:

I know this doesn't work but I wish it would work like this:

You know what I wish? I wish it would work like this: Abbra Kadabra *waving hands* But I guess since it doesn't I will continue to Read Documentation and study Best Practices and Software Design Patterns etc.

Luc Pattyn

lsconyer wrote:

if (childForm.Type == form.Type)

if (childForm is Form) will succeed when childForm is a Form, which it is due to the foreach loop. if (childForm is Form1) will only succeed for those childForms that are also Form1, derived from Form. And also have a look at the "as" keyword! :)

Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles]

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Pete OHanlon

*cough* use GetType() * cough *. Could I suggest that you also look at converting this to a generic method:

private bool ActivateForm<T>(T form) where T : Form
{
  bool isOpen = false;
  int i = 0;
  do
  {
    if (MdiChildren[i].GetType() == typeof(T))
    {
      MdiChildren[i].Activate();
      isOpen = true;
    }
  } while (!isOpen && i++ < this.MdiChildren.Count);
  return isOpen
}

I you really want to learn some more advanced .NET, you could look at modifying this to use anonymous methods.

Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.

Nissim Salomon

Hi Try using the GetType() method instead of the Type keyword in your code