Determining the correct data type from a name

I have created an application that allows users to capture information for entities based on a pre-defined template, which I create through a web interface.

So for instance I create a template and call it "Customer Template" with several properties like First Name, Last Name, Email address and I associate a "data type" to each property, which does not strictly map to a开发者_开发百科 strongly typed type.

When the user then creates a new "Customer" a html form is generated with the appropriate properties / fields, which the user can provide and save.

The data types are called "Plain Text" or "Number" or "Currency" but do not map to a data type. What would be the best approach to associate a "number" to a strongly typed int, for instance, so that when I do operations on it that it is the correct type?

The number of "types" that the users will use are finite, maybe less than 10. Would I run into problems with a switch statement? Or is there another way?

I use c#.

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I would use custom attributes to identify the CLR type mapped to your Form Types as such:

public enum FieldDataTypes 
{
    [FormTypeMetadata(typeof(string))]
    PlainText = 0, 
    [FormTypeMetadata(typeof(int))]
    Number = 1,
    [FormTypeMetadata(typeof(decimal))]
    Currency = 2
}

public class FormTypeMetadataAttribute : Attribute
{
    private readonly Type _baseType = typeof(object);
    public FormTypeMetadataAttribute(Type baseType)
    {
        if (baseType == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("baseType");
        _baseType = baseType;
    }

    public Type BaseType { get { return _baseType; } }
}

// your 'FieldData' implementation would look like this...

public class FieldData
{
    public FieldDataTypes FieldType { get; set; }

    public object Value { get; set; }
}

You can retrieve the FieldDataTypes' attribute using reflection.

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If you're using custom types for all of your data types, why not define each as a class that derives from a common abstract parent class like FormDataType. The parent class could expose some useful methods such as primitive data type association, while derived classes can handle validation, formatting, etc.

Here's a simple example where the parent class is generic. A separate interface definition is included for cases where the generic type argument T varies or is unknown:

public interface IFormDataType
{
    object Value { get; }

    Type PrimitiveType { get; }

    string Format();
}

public abstract class FormDataType<T> : IFormDataType
{
    object IFormDataType.Value { get { return Value; } }
    public Type PrimitiveType { get { return typeof(T); } }
    public T Value { get; private set; }

    public FormDataType(T value)
    {
        Value = value;
    }

    public abstract string Format();

    public override string ToString()
    {
        return Format();
    }
}

public class Currency : FormDataType<decimal>
{
    public Currency(decimal value)
        : base(value)
    {
        //perform any validation if necessary
    }

    public override string Format()
    {
        return Value.ToString("C");
    }

    public static Currency Parse(string s)
    {
        return new Currency(decimal.Parse(s, NumberStyles.Currency));
    }
}

To improve these classes, you might implement Equals, GetHashCode, IConvertible, serialization, validation, etc.