I am trying to access an object stored in a dictionary of type String, UnknownClass. I have the key, and know the value is one of several container classes. Since the value is passed to a method that takes an object, I do not need to know the type of the class stored as a value. I also need to call ContainsKey to confirm the key exists.
I have tried the following methods with no success:
Dictionary<String, object> list = (Dictionary<String, object>)source.GetType().GetProperty(dictionaryName).GetValue(source, null);
nextSource = list[key];
Which gives me a casting error, and:
nextSource = source.GetType().GetMethod("get_Item").Invoke(source, new object[] { key });
Which gives me a null reference exception.
Here is a bit more of the code, although I am not quite sure it will help much.
private void SetValue(object source, String path, String value)
{
if (path.Contains('.'))
{
// If this is not the ending Property, continue recursing
int index = path.IndexOf('.');
String property = path.Substring(0, index);
object nextSource;
if(property.Contains("*"))
{
path = path.Substring(index + 1);
index = path.IndexOf('.');
String dictionaryName = path.Substring(0, index);
Dictionary<String, object> list = (Dictionary<String, object>)source.GetType().GetProperty(dictionaryName).GetValue(source, null);
nextSource = list[property.Substring(1)];
//property = property.Substring(1);
//nextSource = source.GetType().GetMethod("Item").Invoke(source, new[] { property });
} ...
The dictionary being accessed is defined in the PersonObject class as such:
public class PersonObject
{
public String Name { get; set; }
public AddressObject Address { get; set; }
public Dictionary<String, HobbyObject> Hobbies { get; set; }
The value of Path, at this stage, is set to "*Hiking.Hobbies.Hobby"
. Basically, the path string allows me to navigate to a Property in a subclass, and I need the Dictionary to access properties for a list of the same class.