Dynamically add properties to a existing object

I create the person object like this.

 Person person=new Person("Sam","Lewis")

It has properties like this.

person.Dob
person.Address

But now I want to add properties like this and set the values at the run time after creating the object. person.Age person.Sex

How can I add those extra properties after creating the object. Those property name can be changed time to time. Therefor can't hardcode the "Age" and "Sex".

Solution 1:

It's not possible with a "normal" object, but you can do it with an ExpandoObject and the dynamic keyword:

dynamic person = new ExpandoObject();
person.FirstName = "Sam";
person.LastName = "Lewis";
person.Age = 42;
person.Foo = "Bar";
...

If you try to assign a property that doesn't exist, it is added to the object. If you try to read a property that doesn't exist, it will raise an exception. So it's roughly the same behavior as a dictionary (and ExpandoObject actually implements IDictionary<string, object>)

Solution 2:

Take a look at the ExpandoObject.

For example:

dynamic person = new ExpandoObject();
person.Name = "Mr bar";
person.Sex = "No Thanks";
person.Age = 123;

Additional reading here.

Solution 3:

If you can't use the dynamic type with ExpandoObject, then you could use a 'Property Bag' mechanism, where, using a dictionary (or some other key / value collection type) you store string key's that name the properties and values of the required type.

See here for an example implementation.

Solution 4:

If you only need the dynamic properties for JSON serialization/deserialization, eg if your API accepts a JSON object with different fields depending on context, then you can use the JsonExtensionData attribute available in Newtonsoft.Json or System.Text.Json.

Example:

public class Pet
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Type { get; set; }

    [JsonExtensionData]
    public IDictionary<string, object> AdditionalData { get; set; }
}

Then you can deserialize JSON:

public class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        var bingo = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Pet>("{\"Name\": \"Bingo\", \"Type\": \"Dog\", \"Legs\": 4 }");
        Console.WriteLine(bingo.AdditionalData["Legs"]);        // 4

        var tweety = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Pet>("{\"Name\": \"Tweety Pie\", \"Type\": \"Bird\", \"CanFly\": true }");
        Console.WriteLine(tweety.AdditionalData["CanFly"]);     // True

        tweety.AdditionalData["Color"] = "#ffff00";

        Console.WriteLine(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(tweety)); // {"Name":"Tweety Pie","Type":"Bird","CanFly":true,"Color":"#ffff00"}
    }
}

Solution 5:

Consider using the decorator pattern http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decorator_pattern

You can change the decorator at runtime with one that has different properties when an event occurs.