General method accepting List <T>

Question

I have 5 classes that are a data grid row. All of these classes inherit from the abstract CoreGrid class.

I have an export mechanism that uses reflection to determine the columns to export. At this point, I have a method for each type of grid (ExportOrganisations, ExportPeople, ExportEvents), but this is terrible, since the only difference between them is the part in which it searches for the type. A sample code is shown below:

public string ExportEvents(List<EventGrid> events) { DataTable report = new DataTable(); EventGrid ev = new EventGrid(); Type t = ev.GetType(); PropertyInfo[] props = t.GetProperties(); foreach (PropertyInfo prop in props) { if (!prop.Name.Contains("ID")) { report.Columns.Add(prop.Name); } } foreach (var item in events) { DataRow dr = report.NewRow(); Type itemType = item.GetType(); PropertyInfo[] itemProps = itemType.GetProperties(); foreach (PropertyInfo prop in itemProps) { if (report.Columns.Contains(prop.Name)) { if (prop.GetValue(item, null) != null) { dr[prop.Name] = prop.GetValue(item, null).ToString().Replace(",", string.Empty); } } } report.Rows.Add(dr); } return GenerateCSVExport(report, ExportType.Events); } 

My question is: how would I condense these methods into one method when the method accepts a list that inherits from CoreGrid?

Answer 1

 public string ExportEvents<T>(List<T> events) where T : CoreGrid { DataTable report = new DataTable(); Type t = typeof(T); //your magic here } 

And then use

 var result = ExportEvents<EventGrid>(eventList); 

Answer 2

There must be something like this. Due to the ability to infer types, you do not need to change the current call signatures, just point everything to the general method:

 //if myList is a list of CoreGrid or derived. string export = ExportEvents(myList); public string ExportEvents<T>(List<T> events) where T : CoreGrid { DataTable report = new DataTable(); Type t = typeof(T); PropertyInfo[] props = t.GetProperties(); foreach (PropertyInfo prop in props) { if (!prop.Name.Contains("ID")) { report.Columns.Add(prop.Name); } } foreach (var item in events) { DataRow dr = report.NewRow(); Type itemType = item.GetType(); PropertyInfo[] itemProps = itemType.GetProperties(); foreach (PropertyInfo prop in itemProps) { if (report.Columns.Contains(prop.Name)) { var propValue = prop.GetValue(item, null) if (propValue != null) { dr[prop.Name] = propValue.ToString().Replace(",", string.Empty); } } } report.Rows.Add(dr); } return GenerateCSVExport(report, ExportType.Events); }