c# Variable return types

Hi James & Eric,
I have been experimenting a little with the following:

    public class TransactionHeader
    {
        public string transCompanyId { get; set; }
        public string thisTransId { get; set; }
        public string origTransId { get; set; }
        public string transDescription { get; set; }
        public string transType { get; set; }
        public string screenSize { get; set; }
        public string securityLvl { get; set; }
        public string validated { get; set; }
        public string bypassBarcodeChecks { get; set; }
        public string nextNumberSystemCode { get; set; }
        public string alertEmailAddress { get; set; }
        public string emailSubject { get; set; }
        public string emailBody { get; set; }
        public string approvalRequired { get; set; }

        public TransactionHeader()
        {
            transCompanyId = " ";
            thisTransId = " ";
            origTransId = " ";
            transDescription = " ";
            transType = " ";
            transDescription = " ";
            screenSize = " ";
            securityLvl = " ";
            validated = "N";
            bypassBarcodeChecks = "N";
            nextNumberSystemCode = " ";
            alertEmailAddress = " ";
            emailSubject = " ";
            emailBody = " ";
            approvalRequired = "N";
        }
    }

    public class UserMaster
    {
        public string companyId { get; set; }
        public string userId { get; set; }      
        public string firstName { get; set; }
        public string lastName { get; set; }
        public string userGroup { get; set; }        
        public string userBusUnit { get; set; }
        public string initialMenu { get; set; }
        public string userEmail { get; set; }
        public string userPhone { get; set; }
        public string lastTranName { get; set; }
        public DateTime lastTranDate { get; set; }
        public string securityLvl { get; set; }
        public string promptTrans { get; set; }
        public string scanPfxSfxRqd { get; set; }
        public string password { get; set; }
        public string environmentsAvail { get; set; }       // Prod,Test,Dev,Uat
        public string tranHdrDbOvrConStrCode { get; set; }
        public string tranMstDbOvrConStrCode { get; set; }
        public string userMstDbOvrConStrCode { get; set; }
        public string errMsgDbOvrConStrCode { get; set; }
        public string promptMsgDbOvrConStrCode { get; set; }
        public string conStrDbOvrConStrCode { get; set; }
        public UserMaster()
        {
            companyId = " ";
            userId  = " ";
            firstName = " ";
            lastName = " ";
            userGroup = " ";
            userBusUnit = " ";
            initialMenu = " ";
            userPhone = " ";
            userEmail = " ";
            lastTranName = " ";
            lastTranDate = DateTime.MinValue;
            securityLvl = " ";
            promptTrans = " ";
            scanPfxSfxRqd = "Y";
            password = " ";
            environmentsAvail = " ";
            tranHdrDbOvrConStrCode = " ";
            tranMstDbOvrConStrCode = " ";
            userMstDbOvrConStrCode = " ";
            errMsgDbOvrConStrCode = " ";
            promptMsgDbOvrConStrCode = " ";
            conStrDbOvrConStrCode = " ";
         
        }
    }  


    [DataContract]
    public class Transaction
    {
        [DataMember]
        public string environment { get; set; }
        [DataMember]
        public string companyId { get; set; }
        [DataMember]
        public string thisTransId { get; set; }
        [DataMember]
        public string origTransId { get; set; }
        [DataMember]
        public string thisCompanyId { get; set; }

        public UserMaster MyUser { get; set; }

        public List<TransactionHeader> TranHdrList { get; set; }
       
        public List<DisplaySeq> DispSeqList { get; set; }

        //Other props/methods

        public Transaction()
        {
            thisTransId = " ";
            origTransId = " ";
            thisCompanyId = " ";

        }
    }
 }

The Transaction class contains a copy of the User master & Transaction header classes. I can then use a return type of Transaction to return both User and Header details. One thing is confusing. When I create a new instance of Transaction called MyTrans I would have expected that the User details and transaction header details would be initialized - but the are set to null. Why would they not be initialized on creation of a Transaction Object ?

regards
Pat

Hi Saige,
in my application my classes are defined in Transaction.cs.  TransactionService.cs evokes a method in DataBaseIO.cs to read the User file. In this method I create the MyTrans object which now creates  a new MyUser

Transaction MyTrans=new Transaction();

public Transaction()
{
      thisTransId = "";
      origTransId = "";
      thisCompanyId = "";
      MyUser = new MasterUser();
      TranHdrList = new List<TranHdrList>();
      DispSeqList = new List<DisplaySeq>();
}

I can see in debug that MyUser is being initialized but immediately after returning from creating MyTrans & MyUser logic returns to the DataBaseIO method and MyUser is null.
Any idea what I'm doing wrong ?

regards
Pat

isn't it too complex for nothing? return a dataset. sometimes the dataset will contain a MyUser datatable, other times a MyTransHdr datatable, other times a full dataset. Ensure that your tablename is correctly set and test the table name when your dataset gets back from your NavigateRecordsFlex methods.

Hi Eric,
I don't understand what you are try to say in your last comment. I have a generic database read method which I call to read any table. When it reads specific tables I would like to populate an instance of a class with the data. What you seem to be saying is that I should not have a generic read method and that I should have separate code for every file that I wish to read, which doesn't sound right to me.

I am still struggling with how to call a method that returns two or more data types. I  understand that the called method (eg NavigateRecordsFlex) can have multiple return statements as follows

if(tableName=="user_master")
{
return MyUser;
}
// If transaction Header then return MyTransHdr
if(tableName=="transaction_header")
{
return MyTransHdr;
}
return MyDataSet

But how do I code the Data type of NavigateRecordsFlex ?


NavigateRecordsFlex(connStringKey, connString, sqlStmt, tableName);


public ????? NavigateRecordsFlex(string connStringKey, string connString, string sqlStmt, string tableName)


If you could answer this question for me , it would help.

regards
Pat

Hi Eric,
I have changed NavigateRecordsFlex to return the last read  dataset rather than a variation of different types. However I am still having problems with the initialization of MyUser.  In the constructor of MyTran I create a new instance of MyUser and it's constructor in turn initializes the MyUser instance values. But when I next call NavigateRecordsFlex() I find that MyTrans is initialized but MyUser is null. How can it change from initialized to null ?

regards
Pat

Hi Guys,
Final solution was to return a dataset from DataBaseIO and implement additional methods such as ReturnMyUser() , ReturnMyTran() to return the various objects. Thanks to all for your input.

regards
Pat