C# Pass a property by reference

Is there anyway to pass the property of an Object by reference? I know I can pass the whole object but I want to specify a property of the object to set and check it's type so I know how to parse. Should I maybe take another approach (I cannot change the original object in anyway)?

public class Foo{
    public Foo(){}
    public int Age { get; set; }
}

private void setFromQueryString(object aProperty, String queryString, HttpContext context)
{
    //here I want to handle pulling the values out of 
    //the query string and parsing them or setting them
    //to null or empty string...
    String valueString = context.Request.QueryString[queryString].ToString(); 

    //I need to check the type of the property that I am setting.

    //this is null so I can't check it's type
    Type t = aProperty.GetType();
}

private void callingMethod(HttpContext context)
{
    Foo myFoo = new Foo();
    setFromQueryString(myFoo.Age, "inputAge", context);
}

c# .net properties pass-by-reference

Edit Report

You could wrap the property with a corresponding methods and delegates and pass the delegates.

delegate int IntGetter<T>(T obj);
delegate void IntSetter<T>(T obj, int value);

int GetAge(Foo foo)
{
    return foo.Age;
}

void SetAge(Foo foo, int value)
{
    foo.Age = value;
}

private void callingMethod(HttpContext context)
{
    Foo myFoo = new Foo();
    // need to also pass foo so the property can be set
    setFromQueryString(new IntSetter<Foo>(SetAge), foo, "inputAge", context);
}

private void setFromQueryString<T>(
    IntSetter<T> intSetter, 
    T obj, 
    String queryString, 
    HttpContext context)
{
    String valueString = context.Request.QueryString[queryString].ToString(); 
    intSetter(T, valueString);
}

answered 2010-03-03T21:08:49.083

C# Pass a property by reference

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