Generic call to a non static method of a abstract class c#

Question

In my code I have enums like Vehicle , ParkingArea etc. and I have extended them so that the user can make use of the default Vehicle and ParkingArea values and also add/update their own which gets saved in the database. I have a abstract class like so ,

public abstract class EnumExtension<T> where T : struct
{
   public bool updateEnum(string name){
     //code to update the enum extension
   }
}

And there is a controller like the following to access the above update method

public class MyController : ApiController
{   
   public void UpdateAnyEnum(string newName, int value, string typeName){
     var enum_1 = (EnumExtensionForVehicle)value;
     enum_1.updateEnum(newName);
   }
}

I need to make this method UpdateAnyEnum generic since I do not know whether the user is trying to update the Vehicle or ParkingArea In this method I need to determine EnumExtensionForVehicle dynamically and make a call to updateEnum The typeName parameter consists the type of enum I am trying to edit ie either Vehicle or ParkingArea

I need to make UpdateAnyEnum a generic method. Any thoughts and ideas are much appreciated. Thank you.

Answer 1

I am not sure how you determine the class to call. In general you need a reference of EnumExtension in UpdateAnyEnum. And for value of T you need to make it UpdateAnyEnum generic. Something like below.

Note: Below code is not tested. Its just an idea of how code should work

public abstract class EnumExtension<T> where T : struct
{
   public bool updateEnum(string name){
     //code to update the enum extension
   }
}

public class EnumExtensionForVehicle : EnumExtension<Vehicle>
{
   public bool updateEnum(string name){
     //code to update the enum extension
   }
}

public class EnumExtensionForParkingArea : EnumExtension<ParkingArea>
{
   public bool updateEnum(string name){
     //code to update the enum extension
   }
}

public class MyController : ApiController
{   
   public void UpdateAnyEnum<T>(string newName, int value, string typeName) {
        EnumExtension<T> factory;

        switch (typeName)
        {
            case "Vehicle":
                factory = new EnumExtensionForVehicle();
                break;
            case "ParkingArea":
                factory = new EnumExtensionForParkingArea();
                break;
        }

        factory.updateEnum(newName);
   }
}