Thread: Building Dynamic Conditional Statement

Originally Posted by jmurrayhead

How many possible options to check are there?

I'm just trying to cover as many bases as possible. There's bound to be something they'll want that I don't include. Currently, all they use is the contact's title, firstname and lastname, I think...

I'm thinking it might look something like this to the user:-

Code:

Fieldname: <<_Salutation_>>
if <dropdownlist(contact properties)> <dropdownlist(equals, doesn't equal, is empty)> <textbox(for value to check)> then
    <<_Salutation_>> = <textbox(for generic text)> <dropdownlist(contact properties)> <dropdownlist(contact properties)>
else
    <<_Salutation_>> = <textbox(for generic text)> <dropdownlist(contact properties)> <dropdownlist(contact properties)>
end if

It'll then use this conditional on the email it creates for each contact. In this case it would allow up to 2 properties to be concatenated together for each case of the conditional or use the generic text entered. It would be one or the other, so you couldn't enter generic text AND select properties.

Code:

PropertyInfo pi = contact.GetType().GetProperty(ddlFirstOptionToCheck.SelectedValue)
if(string.IsNullOrEmpty(pi.GetValue(contact, null)))
{
    Replace("<<_Salutation_>>", txtGenericText.Text);
}
else
{
    Replace("<<_Salutation_>>", pi.GetValue(contact, null));
}

This is just a simple sample, using Reflection. However, you can't (or at least I don't know of a way) dynamically build the actual condition using the operators from a dropdown (i.e. = <>). So you will have to build a conditional based on what the user selected and then run the same code, while hard coding the operators in:

Code:

if(ddlOperator.SelectedValue == "equals")
{
    if(pi.GetValue(contact, null) == txtFirstOptionToCheck.Text)
    // ... and so on
}

Make sense?

Originally Posted by jmurrayhead

Make sense?

Yes, I think it does...

Thanks J

Originally Posted by Shadow Wizard

Without reading everything here, I would advice on something you probably didn't
really think about: Windows Workflow.. how far is it from what you need?

I don't think it is what I need SW....The issue is that I don't know what property the user may want to check. I want them to be able to dynamically select the object property and check it against a value they enter.

Just a couple of hair-brained idea on the concept of 'dynamic conditionals'

1. There is a small, finite set of possible conditionals the a user might want to choose from. Create some generic helper functions for them, like isEqual, isBetween, isLessThan, etc. Then invoke the correct function

2. It is possible via reflection to actually compile and execute a method at run-time. I don't have the exact details of this here, but I remember doing it once for a giggle.

Originally Posted by Wolffy

Just a couple of hair-brained idea on the concept of 'dynamic conditionals'

1. There is a small, finite set of possible conditionals the a user might want to choose from. Create some generic helper functions for them, like isEqual, isBetween, isLessThan, etc. Then invoke the correct function

2. It is possible via reflection to actually compile and execute a method at run-time. I don't have the exact details of this here, but I remember doing it once for a giggle.

Yeah, I think I'll give it a shot, but got other priorities at the moment..

BTW, this is the syntax used in the mailing software they currently use:-

Code:

<IF(!*FIRSTNAME*! = Nothing THEN !*TITLE*! !*LASTNAME*!, ELSE  !*FIRSTNAME*!,)ENDIF>

This is what I want to do in .NET