How to get data from list of generic objects in type safe manner

Question

I created an interface and generic class implementing that interface, so that object of the same class can hold any type of data. I created list of it successfully. But how to read data from list in type safe manner.

public interface Parameter
{
}

public class Parameter<T> : Parameter
{
    public T Value { get; set; }
}

Parameter[] parameters = new Parameter[] { 
    new Parameter<string> { Value = "X" },
    new Parameter<int> { Value = 1 },
};

How should I loop through array and get individual value? Parameter interface has no declaration of property Value.

Answer 1

You can declare a property of type Object in the Parameter interface; this will allow you to access the value, whatever its actual type:

public interface Parameter
{
    object Value { get; set; }
}

public class Parameter<T> : Parameter
{
    public T Value { get; set; }

    // Explicit interface implementation
    object Parameter.Value
    {
        get { return Value; }
        set { Value = (T)value; }
    }
}