Fallback accessors in C#?

Question

Does C# have anything like Python's __getattr__?

I have a class with many properties, and they all share the same accessor code. I would like to be able to drop the individual accessors entirely, just like in Python.

Here's what my code looks like now:

class Foo
{
    protected bool Get(string name, bool def)
    {
        try {
            return client.Get(name);
        } catch {
            return def;
        }
    }

    public bool Bar
    {
        get { return Get("bar", true); }
        set { client.Set("bar", value); }
    }

    public bool Baz
    {
        get { return Get("baz", false); }
        set { client.Set("baz", value); }
    }
}

And here's what I'd like:

class Foo
{
    public bool Get(string name)
    {
        try {
            return client.Get(name);
        } catch {
            // Look-up default value in hash table and return it
        }
    }

    public void Set(string name, object value)
    {
        client.Set(name, value)
    }
}

Is there any way to achieve this in C# without calling Get directly?

Thanks,

Answer 1

No. Although C# supports reflection, it is read-only (for loaded assemblies). That means you can't change any methods, properties, or any other metadata. Although you could create a dynamic property, calling it wouldn't be very convenient - it would be even worse than using your Get method. Aside from using a Dictionary<string, object> and an indexer for your class, there's not much else you can do. Anyway, isn't doing a dictionary better if you have that many properties?

Python doesn't check if an attribute exists at "compile-time" (or at least load-time). C# does. That's a fundamental difference between the two languages. In Python you can do:

class my_class:
    pass

my_instance = my_class()
my_instance.my_attr = 1
print(my_instance.my_attr)

In C# you wouldn't be able to do that because C# actually checks if the name my_attr exists at compile-time.

Answer 2

I'm not sure, but perhaps the dynamic features of version 4.0 will help you with that. You'll have to wait though...