Hi, I want to use an entity collection as a property. Because i want to use different kinds of entity collections, the property's type should be of the parent type of a Collection Base. But the base class of an entity collection is an generic list. So: how do i pass a generic list whose item's types i don't know yet?

For example I have a class1 with something like this:

private EntityCollectionBase<EntityBase> m_Collection;

public EntityCollectionBase<EntityBase> Collection {
  get { return m_Collection; }
  set { m_Collection = value; }
}

and another wants to access the property like this:

classInst1.Collection = new blablaEntityCollection(); (could be any other entity collection)

I know this is not a LLBLGen prob, it has to do with the .NET generics. Perhaps somebody could just paste a bit of correct code? This would be great!

I think you should instantiate it as follows:

classInst1.Collection = new blablaEntityCollection<blablaEntity>(new blablaEntityFactory());

Ok, and what do I do if i have already an entity collection?

"classInst1.Collection = blablaEntityCollectionInstance" doesn't work.

Maybe try the following:

blablaEntityCollection<blablaEntity> alreadyBlaBla = new blablaEntityCollection<blablaEntity>(new blablaEntityFactory());

classInst1.Collection = alreadyBlaBla;

Hm. I have to confess that I don't understand this factory stuff - where can i find information what this is?

I create my entity collections like that:

blablaEntityCollection myColl = new blablaEntityCollection();
myColl.GetMulti(null);

Now I want to pass the collection to a object with a property which accepts myColl and any other collection created by LLBGen. I don't trust my property syntax. Is this the correct syntax for doing this?

Walaa wrote:

Maybe try the following:

blablaEntityCollection<blablaEntity> alreadyBlaBla = new blablaEntityCollection<blablaEntity>(new blablaEntityFactory());

classInst1.Collection = alreadyBlaBla;

Ok, i think i understand now what a factory is and see why i could use it. But of which type is blablaEntityCollection? As i wrote before, this could be a different collection type each time the code is executed. I want a property which accepts any entity collection LLBLGen creates!

And that's why you have used the base type in your declaration of sucj property.

public EntityCollectionBase<EntityBase> Collection 

Best to use IEntityCollection instead of EntityCollectionBase<type> I think, because of the lack of support for co-variance in C#/VB.NET

The interfaces are meant for this purpose: different types of collections, all usable with the same property.

public IEntityCollection Collection.

Otis wrote:

Best to use IEntityCollection instead of EntityCollectionBase<type> I think, because of the lack of support for co-variance in C#/VB.NET

The interfaces are meant for this purpose: different types of collections, all usable with the same property.

public IEntityCollection Collection.

Yes, this is the solution. The IEntityCollection is exactly what I was looking for. Now this is possible:

(class1)
private IEntityCollection m_Collection;

public IEntityCollection Collection {
    get { return m_Collection; }
    set { m_Collection = value; }
}

and

class1Inst1.Collection = new blablaACollection();
class1Inst2.Collection = new blablaBCollection();

Wasn't that difficult Thanks everyone for your help!

By the way, there's an EntityType-Enumeration. Is there an EntityCollectionType-Enumeration, too? Or is it somehow possible to get the type of the associated collection of a certain entity?

Sokon1 wrote:

By the way, there's an EntityType-Enumeration. Is there an EntityCollectionType-Enumeration, too? Or is it somehow possible to get the type of the associated collection of a certain entity?

The collections are always named as: _entityName_Collection, so you can use the EntityType enumeration value, use it as a string and append Collection and use Activator.CreateInstance to create an instance

Yeah - this is a possibility I've already thought about. I just wondered if there was a more "formal" way Thanks for your answer!