Question

How do I create a custom IDataReader to a custom collection?

Asked by: RyGiL

I know it is possible to create a custom datareader (inferring from the IDataReader interface) which accesses the data in a collection. I've seen it used in other third-party controls and am wanting to do it myself. I've come across an ancient (2004) website of how a guy explains how to do it ( http://blogs.msdn.com/yvesdolc/archive/2004/11/08/254209.aspx) but I am having difficulty implementing his code since he did not provide examples and 2004 C#/.NET2.0 might not be as performance-tuned as the latest and great C#/.NET3.5. Can anyone assist me in either providing some samples on how to do this or providing some sources that can teach me how to do this. I'm googled up and down on a tutorial on how to write a custom datareader but everything I find isn't very helpful... it either lists code that's already complete without good information of how they got there or has code that doesn't do what I need it to do.

Just to make it easy, I've included an example collection in the code so that, if examples are provided, they can reference it.

NOTE: Just an additional item, if this can be generic-ized in a way to support different types of collections, that's a huge plus!

public class Person
{
     public int ID {get; set;}
 
     public string Name {get; set;}
 
     public string Gender {get; set;}
 
     public Person()
     {
 
     }
 
     public Person (int id, string name, string gender)
     {
 
          ID = id;
          Name = name;
          Gender= gender;
     }
}
 
public class People : List<Person>
{
     public People { };
}
 
 
public void Main()
{
     Person person1 = new Person(1, "John Doe", "Male");
     Person person2 = new Person(2, "Jane Smith", "Female");
     Person person3 = new Person(3, "Tom White", "Male");
 
     People peeps = new People();
 
     peeps.Add(person1);
     peeps.Add(person2);
     peeps.Add(person3);
 
}
                                  
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Asked On
2009-10-20 at 08:51:36ID24827360
Tags

c#

,

.net

,

datareader

,

collection

,

generics

Topics

C# Programming Language

,

.NET

,

Language Integrated Query - LINQ

Participating Experts
1
Points
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Comments
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Answers

 

by: MogalManicPosted on 2009-10-23 at 06:35:39ID: 25644241

I have written a MockDataReader for use in unit testing.  It is constructed like this:

object[][] PersionList=new object[] {

new object[] {"Bob", "Smith"},
new object[] {"Tom", "Jones"}
};
IDataReader MockReader=new MockDataReader({"First Name", "Last Name"}, PersonList);

So you see, all of the "smarts" is precomputed in the constructor.  You could do something similar but instead of using an array of arrays, you could use IEnumerable<Person> and then use reflection to determine the column list and possibly the datatypes.

    internal class MockDataReader : IDataReader
    {
        int curRow = -1;
        string[] columns;
        object[][] data;
        public MockDataReader(
            string[] columns,
            object[][] data)
        {
            this.columns = columns;
            this.data = data;
        }
        #region IDataReader Members
 
        public void Close()
        {
        }
 
        public int Depth
        {
            get { return 0; }
        }
 
        public DataTable GetSchemaTable()
        {
            return null;
        }
 
        public bool IsClosed
        {
            get { return this.curRow < data.Length; }
        }
 
        /// <summary>
        /// Advances the data reader to the next result, when reading the results of batch SQL statements.
        /// </summary>
        /// <returns>
        /// true if there are more rows; otherwise, false.
        /// </returns>
        public bool NextResult()
        {
            return false;
        }
 
        /// <summary>
        /// Advances the <see cref="T:System.Data.IDataReader"></see> to the next record.
        /// </summary>
        /// <returns>
        /// true if there are more rows; otherwise, false.
        /// </returns>
        public bool Read()
        {
            curRow++;
            return this.IsClosed;
        }
 
        public int RecordsAffected
        {
            get { return data.Length; }
        }
 
        #endregion
 
        #region IDisposable Members
 
        public void Dispose()
        {
        }
 
        #endregion
 
        #region IDataRecord Members
 
        public int FieldCount
        {
            get { return this.data[0].Length; }
        }
 
        public bool GetBoolean(int i)
        {
            return Convert.ToBoolean(this.data[curRow][i]);
        }
 
        public byte GetByte(int i)
        {
            return Convert.ToByte(this.data[curRow][i]);
        }
 
        public long GetBytes(int i, long fieldOffset, byte[] buffer, int bufferoffset, int length)
        {
            throw new Exception("The method or operation is not implemented.");
        }
 
        public char GetChar(int i)
        {
            return Convert.ToChar(this.data[curRow][i]);
        }
 
        public long GetChars(int i, long fieldoffset, char[] buffer, int bufferoffset, int length)
        {
            Convert.ToString(this.data[curRow][i]).CopyTo((int)fieldoffset, buffer, bufferoffset, length);
            return length;
        }
 
        public IDataReader GetData(int i)
        {
            throw new Exception("The method or operation is not implemented.");
        }
 
        public string GetDataTypeName(int i)
        {
            return this.GetFieldType(i).Name;
        }
 
        public DateTime GetDateTime(int i)
        {
            return Convert.ToDateTime(this.data[curRow][i]);
        }
 
        public decimal GetDecimal(int i)
        {
            return Convert.ToDecimal(this.data[curRow][i]);
        }
 
        public double GetDouble(int i)
        {
            return Convert.ToDouble(this.data[curRow][i]);
        }
 
        public Type GetFieldType(int i)
        {
            return this.data[curRow][i].GetType();
        }
 
        public float GetFloat(int i)
        {
            return Convert.ToSingle(this.data[curRow][i]);
        }
 
        public Guid GetGuid(int i)
        {
            return new Guid(this.GetString(i));
        }
 
        public short GetInt16(int i)
        {
            return Convert.ToInt16(this.data[curRow][i]);
        }
 
        public int GetInt32(int i)
        {
            return Convert.ToInt32(this.data[curRow][i]);
        }
 
        public long GetInt64(int i)
        {
            return Convert.ToInt64(this.data[curRow][i]);
        }
 
        public string GetName(int i)
        {
            return this.columns[i];
        }
 
        public int GetOrdinal(string name)
        {
 
            for (int idx = 0; idx < this.columns.Length; idx++)
            {
                if (name.Equals(this.columns[idx]))
                    return idx;
            }
            return -1;
        }
 
        public string GetString(int i)
        {
            return Convert.ToString(this.data[curRow][i]);
        }
 
        public object GetValue(int i)
        {
            return this.data[curRow][i];
        }
 
        public int GetValues(object[] values)
        {
            this.data[curRow].CopyTo(values, 0);
            return data[curRow].Length;
        }
 
        public bool IsDBNull(int i)
        {
            return Convert.IsDBNull(this.data[curRow][i]);
        }
 
        public object this[string name]
        {
            get
            {
                int column = this.GetOrdinal(name);
                return this.data[curRow][column];
            }
        }
 
        public object this[int column]
        {
            get
            {
                return this.data[curRow][column];
            }
        }
 
        #endregion
    }
                                              
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by: RyGiLPosted on 2009-10-23 at 06:59:06ID: 25644469

About 10 minutes before receiving your email, I figured out how to work with the IDataReader implementation mentioned in the link in the original question. I think I actually prefer his implementation of the GetColumnDelegate to retrieve the columns instead of pssing them in as it feels a little more generic-ized. Also, his is geared more towards collections.

Your example though is very easy to understand though and I appreciate you sharing it with me. I might tinker around with it especially regarding your suggestion to get it away from the arrays and supporting a generic collection. Thanks.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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