I want to create a class in c#, that contains the instance name in an internal string. For example, the class 'Person':
Person steve = new Person();
and the class will look like that:
class Person
{
private string Name;
}
So the string 'Name' will contain: "steve".
How can I do that? Is that possible?
No, it's not possible.
Consider this:
Person steve = new Person();
Person john = steve;
Now what would Name be?
A variable name is not an instance name. Instances do not have names, but locations in memory, and several variable names might be pointing to the same instance.
What would happen if the instance created as a parameter? Or if it is used in an array? Or if it is reassigned to another variable? This is not a good idea (Nor is it possible the way you want it)
Use a string parameter in the constructor that assigns a value to the name:
class Person
{
private string Name { get; set; }
public Person(string name)
{
Name = name;
}
}
And create the instance as:
Person steve = new Person("Steve");
The string "Steve" is now passed to the constructor of the class when it is created. See Constructors (C# Programming Guide)
It is quite possible you are looking for Dictionary<string, Person> to map name of person to instance of a person:
class Person
{
public string Name {get;set;}
}
var people = new Dictionary<string, Person>();
people.Add("Steve", new Person { Name = "Steve"});
var theSteve = people["Steve"];
Notes
private looks somewhat strange - if you ever want to check what name of the person is you should make it public (or better make it property as shown in my sample). If you don't want other code to access "Name" - you'll need to set it in constructor.It is also possible to do exactly what you are asking - "create method where there is variable with given name which holds instance of and object and one of private fields of the object has name equal to variable name". You'd use Reflection.Emit to construct such method at run-time and possibly need to use other APIs in Reflection namespace to alter value of private field... Also I doubt it is what you are looking for.
Person steve = new Person(); Person joe = steve;?