Assign certain integer a value depending on string value in c#

Question

Suppose I have 3 integers all declared as

int Y = 0;
int N = 0;
int U = 0;

From there I grab 2 values from a stored procedure (one string and 1 integer).
The string returns either Y,N,U
The integer returns a count of the people attending.

string test = dr["ATTEND_CDE"].ToString();
int test2 = int.Parse(dr["COUNT"].ToString());

Is there a better way to assign the corresponding integer the count other than:

if (test == "Y")
{
    Y = test2;
}
else if (test == "N")
{
    N = test2;
}
else if (test == "U")
{
    U = test2;
}

Just a side note: get rid of those "test" variable names before it's too late, they make the code harder to understand. — Andrew
– Andrew, Commented Aug 19, 2015 at 17:59

BradleyDotNET · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-19 17:52:43Z

8

What you really have here is a mapping between a string ("Y", "N", or "U") and an int.

This is a perfect use case for a Dictionary (C# 6 syntax follows):

Dictionary<string, int> myValues = new Dictionary<string, int>()
{
    ["Y"] = 0,
    ["N"] = 0,
    ["U"] = 0
};

//usage
myValues[stringFromDatabase] = valueFromDatabase;

Note that this will throw (which is probably what you want) if the value from the database is junk.

answered Aug 19, 2015 at 17:52

BradleyDotNET

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4 Comments

SLaks Over a year ago

You can do that in C# 3 too: { "Y", 0 },

BradleyDotNET Over a year ago

@SLaks Yes, but since I used the C# 6 form (with the index notation) I wanted to call that out. The C# 3 syntax is also valid of course.

BringQBasicBack Over a year ago

Thanks! Works perfect and looks a lot better than an if statement

BradleyDotNET Over a year ago

@BringQBasicBack FWIW, its more efficient (O(1) vs (O(n)) too (not that you would notice unless there was a lot of these, but still....)

Benjamin Chambers · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-19 17:56:11Z

2

You can use a switch statement on strings. So for your example above,

switch(test)
{
    case "Y": Y = test2; break;
    case "N": N = test2; break;
    case "U": U = test2; break;
}

answered Aug 19, 2015 at 17:56

Benjamin Chambers

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Comments

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:58:01Z

1

If you store Y, N, U as properties in a class then you can work with

Data contracts (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/ms733127%28v=VS.110%29.aspx)
an ORM framework (Best ORM to use with C# 4.0)
automatic JSON deserialization (Deserializing JSON to .NET object using Newtonsoft (or LINQ to JSON maybe?))
automatic XML deserialization (http://www.jonasjohn.de/snippets/csharp/xmlserializer-example.htm)

If you use c# 6.0 then you can at least do something like

if(test.equals(nameof(y)))
{
     //...
}

edited May 23, 2017 at 11:58

CommunityBot

11 silver badge

answered Aug 19, 2015 at 17:58

Wosi

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