How To Read Dynamic Properties From Database

I will try to explain my scenario the best way I can. I have the following tables in my database: Products{ProductId, CategoryId ...} Categories{CategoryId ...} CategoryProperties{

Solution 1:

Your original approach

publicclassProduct
{
    public List<Dictionary<string, string>> DynamicProperties { get; set; }
}

is quite good. I would use a custom collection though, with better naming so the intent is clearer.

---

You could also utilize C# 4.0's dynamic feature which more cool, but I'm not sure what benefit it gives in your case. You could do something like,

publicclassProduct{
    publicList<dynamic> DynamicProperties { get; set; }
}

...

conn.Open();
using (var reader = cmd.ExecuteReader())
{
    var p = new Products();
    p.DynamicProperties = reader.AsDyamic().ToList();

    //orforeach (var item in reader.AsDynamic())
        yieldreturn item;
}

// carry this extension method aroundpublicstatic IEnumerable<dynamic> AsDynamic(this IDataReader reader)
{
    var names = Enumerable.Range(0, reader.FieldCount).Select(reader.GetName).ToList();
    foreach (IDataRecord record in reader as IEnumerable)
    {
        var expando = new ExpandoObject() as IDictionary<string, object>;
        foreach (var name in names)
            expando[name] = record[name];

        yieldreturn expando;
    }
}

Somewhat related question: How to convert a data reader to dynamic query results

Solution 2:

You have a product, a bunch of categories, and each category has a bunch of properties.

classProduct
{
    publicint Id { get; set; }
    public Category Category { get; set; }
    public List<ProductProperty> Properties { get; set; }
}

classCategory
{
  publicint Id { get; set; }
  publicstring Name { get; set; }
}

classProductProperty
{
   publicint Id { get; set; }
   publicstring Name { get; set; }
   publicstring Value { get; set; }
}

you could store the product properties in a list / dictionary

then you just add properties to the product

Properties.Add(newProductionProperty() { Name="intel i7"});

or if its name/value

Properties.Add(newProductionProperty() { Name="Speed", Value="150MB/s"});