calling an overloaded method in generic method

Question

class Test
{
    public BinaryWriter Content { get; private set; }
    public Test Write (T data)
    {
        Content.Write(data);
        return this;
           


        

Answer 1

This is possible but not with generic constraints . You can try to use Reflection and get the appropriate overloaded version of Write method according to type of T.

Initialize your BinaryWriter with a Stream in your constructor then use Reflection like below:

class Test
{
    public BinaryWriter Content { get; private set; }

    public Test(Stream stream)
    {
        Content = new BinaryWriter(stream);
    }

    public Test Write(T data)
    {

        var method = typeof (BinaryWriter).GetMethod("Write", new[] {data.GetType()});
        if (method != null)
        {
            method.Invoke(Content, new object[] { data });
        }
        // here you might want to throw an exception if method is not found

        return this;
    }
}

Here is a test program:

Test writer;
using (var fs = new FileStream("sample.txt", FileMode.Open))
{
     writer = new Test(fs);
     writer = writer.Write(232323);
     writer = writer.Write(true);
     writer = writer.Write(12);
}

using (var fs = File.Open("sample.txt", FileMode.Open))
{
    var reader = new BinaryReader(fs);
    Console.WriteLine(reader.ReadInt32());  // 232323
    Console.WriteLine(reader.ReadBoolean()); // true
    Console.WriteLine(reader.ReadByte());    // 12
}