Mapping two classes in c#

Question

I have two classes

public class foo1
{
  public int id;
  public string image_link;
  public string sale_price;
}

and

public class foo2
{
 public int Id;
 public string ImageLink;
 public string SalePrice
}

The property values differ only by underscore and cases. I need to map these two classes.

For now I am trying something like this and its working:

//var b = object of foo2
var a = new foo1{
 a.id = b.Id,
 a.image_link = b.ImageLink,
 a.sale_price = b.SalePrice
}

I heard of AutoMapper, but I din't have clear idea of how i am going to use that or where is the option of ignoring cases or underscores in it. or is there any better solution to it?

Answer 1

Your code is fine and works as expected.

I would personally advise you to not use automapper. There are plenty explanations about why on the Internet, here's for example one: http://www.uglybugger.org/software/post/friends_dont_let_friends_use_automapper

Basically the major issue is that your code will silently fail at runtime if you rename some property on your foo1 object without modifying your foo2 object.

Answer 2

As @ken2k answer, I suggest you to don't use an object mapper.

If you want to save code you can just create a new method (or directly in the constructor) for the mapping.

public class foo1
{
  public int id;
  public string image_link;
  public string sale_price;

  public void map(foo2 obj)
  {
    this.id = obj.Id;
    this.image_link = obj.ImageLink;
    this.sale_price = obj.SalePrice;
  }
}

Then

//var b = object of foo2
var a = new foo1();
a.map(b);