Using C# Reflection to assign collection of variable size to class properties

Question

I have a destination class called Foo with the following properties:

public string Bar1 { get; set; }
public string Bar2 { get; set; }
public string Bar3 { get; set; }
public string Bar4 { get; set; }
public string Bar5 { get; set; }
public string Bar6 { get; set; }

I'm reading in a file that could have any number of "Bars" which I read into a collection called fileBars . I need to find out how to use Reflection to iterate over fileBars and assign the first one to Bar1 , the second one to Bar2 , etc.

I've tried several things I've found online, most recently playing with what's shown below, but I haven't had any luck. Can someone who is familiar with Reflection point me in the right direction?

var count = fileBars.Count();
var myType = Foo.GetType();
PropertyInfo[] barProperties = null;

for (var i = 0; i < count; i++)
{
    barProperties[i] = myType.GetProperty("Bar" + i + 1);
}

Answer 1

You need to initialize barProperties :

PropertyInfo[] barProperties = new PropertyInfo[count];

To assign a value to the property, use SetValue :

barProperties[i].SetValue(Foo, fileBars[i] );

Answer 2

I don't think you need to store the PropertyInfo objects in an array; you can just assign the values as you go:

var count = fileBars.Count();
var instance = new Foo();

for (var i = 1; i <= count; i++)
{
    var property = typeof(Foo).GetProperty("Bar" + i);
    if(property != null)
       property.SetValue(instance, fileBars[i - 1];
    else 
       // handle having too many bars to fit in Foo

}

Answer 3

Unless you need to keep all the properties you find for later, you don't need the barProperties array:

var myType = foo.GetType();
int barCount = 0;
foreach(string barValue in fileBars)
{
    barCount++;
    var barProperty = myType.GetProperty("Bar" + barCount);
    barProperty.SetValue(foo, barValue, null);
}