NameValue, now with Distinct() support
One of the more useful little classes in my utility box is NameValue. It's so very easy to fill with useful data from a Linq query, and once filled so easy to move between layers, in a way that a projection simply can't be used. The simple little NameValue class bind just fine to a drop down menu, and will bring you tea after you finish with that stupid girl that didn't like your pony/monkey chimera.
I recently had to add equality checks and an override for == and != in order to make merging two lists of name value pairs together possible. Now .Distinct() works on a List<NameValue>! There's some good material out there for how to make a quality equality implementation.
[Serializable] public class NameValue
{ public object Name
{ get { return _Name;
} set {
_Name = value;
} } protected virtual object _Name
{ get; set;
} public object Value
{ get { return _Value;
} set {
_Value = value;
} } protected virtual object _Value
{ get; set;
} public override bool Equals(object obj)
{ if (obj == null) return false; if (this.GetType() != obj.GetType()) return false; // safe
because of the GetType check NameValue
nv = (NameValue)obj; // use
this pattern to compare reference members if (!Object.Equals(this.Value,
nv.Value)) return false; if (!Object.Equals(this.Name,
nv.Name)) return false; return true;
} public override int GetHashCode()
{ return Name.GetHashCode() ^ Value.GetHashCode();
} public static bool operator ==(NameValue
n1, NameValue n2) { return n1.Equals(n2);
} public static bool operator !=(NameValue
n1, NameValue n2) { return !n1.Equals(n2);
} }
