Variable Datasource Name

[eddieangel]

I am trying to make a fairly robust file writer. I want to specify the format of the file in an XML file. I need to be able to get the datasource name dynamically from the XML file, the XML will look something like this:

I am not sure what that data will look like. It might be a list, it might be a single object, but I want to be able to enumerate it's properties in my class. Something like this:

var data = data.GetType().GetProperty(fieldName).GetValue(data, null).ToString()

I have most of the code ironed out, just not sure how to handle the data source. I could make it less generic and take the data source name out of the XML and just handle it code side, but I like the robustness of having the instructions all XML contained. Thoughts? Cheers, --EA

[Lost User]

You can use XPathNavigator and XPathNodeIterator (in the System.Xml.XPath namespace) to navigate an "unknown" XML data source.

[eddieangel]

I should have explained better. The instructions are XML, but the datasource could be any number of things. It is either a List or just an Object. If it is an object I want to get at it's properties as in the c# code I posted below, if it is a List then I will loop through it and access it the same way. Just need to figure out how to access that data by name.

[Lost User]

Then perhaps the PropertyInfo class of the System.Reflection namespace is what you're looking for ...

[eddieangel]

Now THAT sounds promising. Thanks for the direction. Cheers, --EA

[Lost User]

Also check out the MemberInfo class. One typically starts at the "member-level" (GetMembers() of the type), and then depending on the "member type" (property; method) of each member, goes from there.