C# Multiple Indexers

Question

Is it possible to have something like the following:

class C
{
    public Foo Foos[int i]
    {
        ...
    }

    public Bar Bars[int i]
    {
        .         


        

Answer 1

There IS a way.. if you define 2 new types to alow the compiler to distinguish the two different signatures...

  public struct EmployeeId
  { 
      public int val;
      public EmployeeId(int employeeId) { val = employeeId; }
  }
  public struct HRId
  { 
      public int val;
      public HRId(int hrId) { val = hrId; }
  }
  public class Employee 
  {
      public int EmployeeId;
      public int HrId;
      // other stuff
  }
  public class Employees: Collection<Employee>
  {
      public Employee this[EmployeeId employeeId]
      {
          get
             {
                foreach (Employee emp in this)
                   if (emp.EmployeeId == employeeId.val)
                      return emp;
                return null;
             }
      }
      public Employee this[HRId hrId]
      {
          get
             {
                foreach (Employee emp in this)
                   if (emp.HRId == hrId.val)
                      return emp;
                return null;
             }
      }
      // (or using new C#6+ "expression-body" syntax)
      public Employee this[EmployeeId empId] => 
             this.FirstorDefault(e=>e.EmployeeId == empId .val;
      public Employee this[HRId hrId] => 
             this.FirstorDefault(e=>e.EmployeeId == hrId.val;

  }

Then to call it you would have to write:

Employee Bob = MyEmployeeCollection[new EmployeeID(34)];

And if you wrote an implicit conversion operator:

public static implicit operator EmployeeID(int x)
{ return new EmployeeID(x); }

then you wouldn't even have to do that to use it, you could just write:

Employee Bob = MyEmployeeCollection[34];

Same thing applies even if the two indexers return different types...