C#: Object Oriented issue

Not quite clear what you want. Can you just use a generic List<Person>?

A couple of things ...

1.  You're going to need to create "listPersons" as a static member of the Person class.
2.  You cannot refer to a static member through an instance variable.  You have to use the type/class name instead.

Add code to your Person class as I have listed below.

Then when you reference the listPersons static member, do it like this:

firstPersonName = Person.listPersons[0].Name;

public static Person[] listPersons
{
  get
  {
      Person[] p = {new Person(), new Person()};
      
      p[0] = new Person();
      p[0].Name = "Jim";
      p[0].Age = 35;

      p[1] = new Person();
      p[1].Name = "Bob";
      p[1].Age = 25;

      return p;
  }
}

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I'd use a collection like in the snippet:

        private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            Person p1 = new Person();
            Person p2 = new Person();
            Person p3 = new Person();
            Person p4 = new Person();
            Person p5 = new Person();
            List<Person> persons = new List<Person>();
            
            persons.AddRange(new Person[]{p1,p2,p3,p4,p5});
            string firstPersonName = persons[0].Name;
            int firstPersonAge = persons[0].Age;

            string secondPersonName = persons[1].Name;
            int secondPersonAge = persons[1].Age;

        }

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As I truly understand you need to implement Persons list into the Person class. Therefore here is the solution:

class Person
    {
        public int Age { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }

        public List<Person> Persons { get; set; }

        public Person(List<Person> persons)
        {
            Persons = persons;
            Persons.Add(this);
        }

    }

 List<Person> list = new List<Person>();
            
 Person p = new Person(list);
 Person p1 = new Person(list);

 string firstPersonName = p.Persons[0].Name;
 int firstPersonAge = p.Persons[0].Age;

 string secondPersonName = p.Persons[1].Name;
 int secondPersonAge = p.Persons[1].Age;

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@karelog - define your requirement precisely.

first of all I want to thank everybody for the answers.

Now to the issue:

once I've read the comments I think I have more clear what I need to.

I have this class Person and I need to go to the database and get a pool of persons.
So I was wandering if I can do something like this or is against the OO philosophy.
 [embed=snippet 1015898]

what do you all think of this?
is this against OO programming?
will this allow me to do this:

Person p = new Person();
firstPersonName = p.ListOfPersons[0].name;
firstPersonAge = p.ListOfPersons[0].age;

secondPersonName = p.ListOfPersons[1].name;
secondPersonAge = p.ListOfPersons[1].age;

Public class Person{
  private int age;
  private string name;

  private List<Person> listOfPersons;

  private bool flag; //used to know if go to database and get the list

  public Person(){
    this.age = 0;
    this.name = "";
    this.listOfPersons = new List<Person>();  //I don't know the number of elements the list can get.
    this.flag = false;

  }
  
  public int Age { get{ return this.age; } set { this.age = value; } }
  public string Name { get{ return this.name; } set { this.name= value; } }
  public List<Person> ListOfPersons{
    get{
      //Connnect to database and list persons...
      if (flag == false){
        this.listOfPersons = getPersonsFromDatabase();
        this.flag = true;
      }
      return this.listOfPersons;
    }
  }
}

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Actually it will work, but I dont think that it's good solution to fill ListOfPersons in the Person class. All filling action should be done in the separate DataAccess layer, that will return filled Person object.

I know.

The code I exposed is an example, actually I have

Connect layer -> Provides functions to execute Querys and nonQuerys to the database Server.
Data Layer -> Provides Classes to store the Database Info (in this case, Person is a sub-class of this Layer)
Query Layer -> Provides Functions that makes interact the Data Layer with the Connect Layer. (I don't know how to call this layer XD)

so the getPersonsFromDatabase() is actually a member of QueryLayer and tells the ConnectLayer to execute a query to the database. The Connect Layer will return a DataReader, so the QueryLayer will get this DataReader and will process it and store the info into the DataLayer. In this case, List all Persons.

Is this good?

Hello karelog

Have a look at the attached code. This will help you understand what you need:

Thanks,

Richard Hughes

public class Person
    {
        public string FirstName
        {
            get { return _firstName; }
            set { _firstName = value; }
        }
        private string _firstName = String.Empty;

        public bool Save(DbConnection con)
        {
            // save here
        }

        public static Person GetById(int personId, DbConnection con)
        {
            // get person here
        }

        public static List<Person> GetAll(DbConnection con)
        {
            // get all persons here
        }
    }

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because I want a clean code in the GUI layer.

I don't want to be declarating all kind of classes and Lists of this classes and then fill them and all just to get the length of my List.

I want to provide the final programmer the simpliest way to do their job >.<
And I want to learn good practices as well in the meanwhile.

Using the above code, you can do something like this:

There are many ways to expand the ORM later in the code above, like implementing an IsDirty property for instance.

Thanks

Person p1 = new Person();
Person p2 = new Person();

p1.FirstName = this.textPersonFirstName.Text;
p1.Save(myDbConnection);

p2.FirstName = "John";
p2.Save(myDbConnection);

List<Person> allPeople = Person.GetAll(myDbConnection);
foreach(Person p in allPeople)
{
    Console.WriteLine(p.FirstName);
}

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@richard_hughes:
Thanks, but that uses a method which must be received into an object to process it.

The idea is to use a property, so I can use it and apply it in one sentence of code.

What do you mean?

The explanation is in the code.

Person p = new Person();

//Method:
string name = p.getName();

//Property:
string name2 = p.Name;

/* Note that the method can receive an argument. The property just gets or sets something without argument */

//To declare a property into the Person class
Public class Person{
  private string name;
  
  //Property:
  public string Name {get { return this.name; } set { this.name = value } }

  //Method: (Getter and Setter)
  public string getName() { return this.name; }
  public void setName(string name) { this.name = name; }
}

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Your code does the same as what is posted above, except without the GetAll method.

It is important the keep your code segmented and in layers if you would like to follow good programming practice. There is nothing wrong with passing an argument into Person.GetAll();

The programmer using this will expect such behaviour, because this is a common, standard way of completing this task.

Thanks

And as a note, there is no need to have both:

public string Name
{
    get { return this.name; }
}

and have:

public string getName()
{
    return this.Name;
}

This code duplication will confuse programmers. For good programming practice, it is good to avoid code duplication as much as possible.

Using:

public string Name
{
    get { return this.name; }
}

instead of the method is a standard .NET method of completing this task. Unless there is a lot of processing involved in the property, it is best to stick to the 'get'.

Thanks

@richard_hughes:

Ok, now we are understanding each other. :D

first:
  I know I should not use both.

second:
  I know about Layers. I'm not mixing anything.

third:
  my doubt is still on:
    is good to have a list of persons in a class which represents one singe person?
    Maybe I should create a class [b]"CollectionOfPersons"[/b] inherits from List. But I don't know how to do it D:

I want to be able that the GUI programmer life easier by providing easy-to-follow code.
I think this can be achieved by providing tools that can make this (see code):

Why to declare a new list if I already have one in my Person class?

Person p = new Person();
string name = p.listOfPersons[index].name;

//If I use a method instead a property,
//the GUI programmer will have to do something like:

Person p = new Person();

List<Person> list = p.listOfPersons();

string name = list[index].name;

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Ok, I think there is one important thing: Will the Person class be used in the client-server application?
If yes using the Person object with listOfPersons will be heavy-aggregated transferring via network.

@richard_hughes:
  you just read my mind!!! I just make that XD
  now I will try to follow from that point. I think I'll list the Persons in the constructor of the class or, as I say below, when a method is executed.


@vusov:
  Is an ASP.NET application, The database and web-server and in the same machine.
  I'm thinking in adding method in order to refresh the list only when the "refreshListOfPersons()" is executed (yes, I have to create that method)

Just gonna throw in my two cents...
Logically, it doesn't really make sense that a single person should contain a list of persons - as a programmer using your code, I wouldn't expect or necessarily understand that in order to find "Jane" in a list of people I need to refer to an instance of "Bob"
In these cases I generally use a seperate PersonsCollection class (usually inheriting from CollectionBase), then in practice I generally need to refer only to the collection without much of a need to ever directly instantiate a Person.
 

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Specialized;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
	class Program
	{
		static void Main(string[] args)
		{
			PersonsCollection people = new PersonsCollection();

			Person santa = new Person("Santa", "Claus");
			people.Add(santa);

			
		}
	}

	public class Person
	{
		public string FirstName { get; set; }
		public string LastName { get; set; }
		public Person() { }
		public Person(string FirstName, string LastName)
		{
			this.FirstName = FirstName;
			this.LastName = LastName;
		}

		public override string ToString()
		{
			return String.Format("{0},{1}", this.LastName, this.FirstName);
		}
	}

	public class PersonsCollection : CollectionBase
	{
		public PersonsCollection()
		{
			// Get data from database, or use overloaded constructor to
			// provide the list at collection creation
			this.AddNew("Jane", "Doe");
			this.AddNew("John", "Smith");
		}

		public void AddRange(params Person[] People)
		{
			foreach (Person p in People)
				List.Add(p);
		}

		public Person AddNew(string FirstName, string LastName)
		{
			Person newPerson = new Person(FirstName, LastName);
			List.Add(newPerson);
			return newPerson;
		}

		public int Add(Person person) { return List.Add(person); }

		public Person this[string LastNameCommaFirstName]
		{
			get
			{
				foreach (Person p in List)
					if (p.ToString().ToLower() == LastNameCommaFirstName.ToLower())
						return (Person)p;
				return null;
			}
		}

		public Person this[int index]
		{
			get { return (Person)List[index]; }
		}

		protected override void OnValidate(object value)
		{
			if (value.GetType() != typeof(Person))
				throw new ArgumentException("value must be of type Person.", "value");
		}
	}
}

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I wanted to share the final code with all of you.
Thanks ^^

Public class Person{
  Public string Name { get; set; }
  Public string Age { get; set; }

  Public Person() { }
}

Public class People : List<Person>{

  Public static People listFromDatabase(){
    DataAccessLayer d = new DataAccessLayer();
    return d.listPeople();
  }
}

public void main(){
  People p = People.listFromDatabase();
  
  foreach(Person pr in People){
    Document.WriteLine("Name: " + pr.Name);
    Document.WriteLine("Age: " + pr.Age);

  }
}

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Excelent!

I am pleased that you found the answer.

That code is fine :)

Thanks everybody for helping me with this ^^