FastExpando and the Borg Method

Sometimes you need to send two objects as parameters to the database. Normally, you would need to combine the properties into a new anonymous object.

Beer beer = new Beer() { Name = "Sly Fox IPA" };
Glass glass = new Glass() { Ounces = 32 };

Database.Connection().Execute("PourADraft",
	new
	{
		Name = beer.Name,
		Ounces = glass.Ounces
	});

For small numbers of parameters, this isn't too bad, but it gets unweildy for larger objects.

Fortunately, FastExpando makes it easy to turn an object into a FastExpando, and then expand the expando with more objects. We call this process "assimilation".

FastExpando x = beer.Expand();
x.Expand(glass);

Now x has Name, Flavor, OriginalGravity and Ounces properties.

dynamic d = x;
Console.WriteLine(d.Name);
Console.WriteLine(d.Ounces);

There are lots of handy extension methods to let you chain this together:

FastExpando x = beer.Expand(glass);

This makes our call to the database a whole lot cleaner:

Database.Connection().Execute("PourADraft", beer.Expand(glass));

You can probably find lots of other uses for this.

NOTE: The Expand method only copies public fields and properties from the object. Also, it only (currently) copies members from the compiled type.

For example:

Beer beer = new Lager() { Color = "golden" }; // lager is derived from beer
dynamic x = FastExpando.FromObject(beer);

Console.WriteLine(d.Name);		// valid
Console.WriteLine(d.Color);		// not valid (currently)