Create anonymous type from string

Question

So I have a anonymous type which I have used ToString on, and put into a file. It looks like this (and remarkably like JSon...):

{ Name = Name, Description = Description, Status = Pending, Key = Template, SubmittedBy = MyName, Identity = 2fb7a40b-e07a-4f1a-a48b-2c2720567f35 }

now I want to go the other way (edit:take the string from a file and put it into a format I can put into a known object) and put it into an anonymous type (which has the same properties, but I don't care if they are castable or anything like that, I just want a quick way to do something like.

AnonObject = GetObjectFromFile(blah);
RealObject.Name = AnonObject.Name;

I only have an interface for RealObject, so I can't add serialisation to the class. If you know a better way, let me know. Thanks.

Identity is a guid. I don't want to add a library if I can help it. — Sean
– Sean, Commented Jun 27, 2012 at 15:13

Jon Skeet · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-27 15:10:15Z

6

Anonymous types are defined at compile time, and included in the assembly just like any other type. Creating them at execution time would require dynamically creating types - it's likely to end up getting messy really quickly.

If you're using .NET 4, you could use an ExpandoObject and dynamic; otherwise I'd probably just use a Dictionary<string, object> and change this:

RealObject.Name = AnonObject.Name;

to

RealObject["Name"] = AnonObject.Name;

(Or vice versa. It's not really clear what you're doing.)

answered Jun 27, 2012 at 15:10

Jon Skeet

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2 Comments

Sean Over a year ago

Does ExpandoObject serialise?

Sean Over a year ago

Okay, it doesn't. I'll just manually parse the string into RealObject rather than using an intermediary. Thanks.

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