Part 65 - C# Tutorial - Indexers in c#

Suggested Videos 
Part 62 - Creating partial classes
Part 63 - Partial methods
Part 64 - How and where are indexers used in .net



Please watch Part 64, before proceeding with this video.

In this video we will discuss about creating indexers.  Let us understand indexers with an example. Create an asp.net web application. Add a class file, with name = Company.cs. Copy and paste the following code.



using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;

namespace Demo
{
    public class Employee
    {
        public int EmployeeId { get; set; }
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public string Gender { get; set; }
    }

    public class Company
    {
        private List<Employee> listEmployees;

        public Company()
        {
            listEmployees = new List<Employee>();

            listEmployees.Add(new Employee 
            { EmployeeId = 1, Name = "Mike", Gender = "Male" });
            listEmployees.Add(new Employee 
            { EmployeeId = 2, Name = "Pam", Gender = "Female" });
            listEmployees.Add(new Employee 
            { EmployeeId = 3, Name = "John", Gender = "Male" });
            listEmployees.Add(new Employee 
            { EmployeeId = 4, Name = "Maxine", Gender = "Female" });
            listEmployees.Add(new Employee 
            { EmployeeId = 5, Name = "Emiliy", Gender = "Female" });
            listEmployees.Add(new Employee 
            { EmployeeId = 6, Name = "Scott", Gender = "Male" });
            listEmployees.Add(new Employee 
            { EmployeeId = 7, Name = "Todd", Gender = "Male" });
            listEmployees.Add(new Employee 
            { EmployeeId = 8, Name = "Ben", Gender = "Male" });
        }

        // Use "this" keyword to create an indexer
        // This indexer takes employeeId as parameter
        // and returns employee name
        public string this[int employeeId]
        {
            // Just like properties indexers have get and set accessors
            get
            {
                return listEmployees.
                    FirstOrDefault(x => x.EmployeeId == employeeId).Name;
            }
            set
            {
                listEmployees.
                    FirstOrDefault(x => x.EmployeeId == employeeId).Name = value;
            }
        }
    }
}

Points to remember:
1. In the Company class constructor, we are initializing variable "listEmployees" and adding employees to the list.
2. We then created an indexer using "this" keyword. This indexer takes employeeId as parameter and returns employee name.
public string this[int employeeId]
3. Just like properties indexers have get and set accessors.
4. Indexers can also be overloaded. We will discuss about indexer overloading in our next video.

Now let's discuss about,  using the indexer, that we just created. Copy and paste the following code in WebForm1.aspx.cs
Company company = new Company();
Response.Write("Name of Employee with Id = 2: " + company[2]);
Response.Write("<br/>");
Response.Write("Name of Employee with Id = 5: " + company[5]);
Response.Write("<br/>");
Response.Write("Name of Employee with Id = 8: " + company[8]);

Response.Write("<br/>");
Response.Write("<br/>");

Response.Write("Changing names of employees with Id = 2,5,8");
Response.Write("<br/>");
company[2] = "Employee 2 Name Changed";
company[5] = "Employee 5 Name Changed";
company[8] = "Employee 8 Name Changed";

Response.Write("Name of Employee with Id = 2: " + company[2]);
Response.Write("<br/>");
Response.Write("Name of Employee with Id = 5: " + company[5]);
Response.Write("<br/>");
Response.Write("Name of Employee with Id = 8: " + company[8]);

Points to remember:
1. EmployeeId's 2,5 and 8 are passed into the company object, to retrieve the respective employee names. To retrieve the names of the employees, the "get" accessor of the indexer is used.
2. To change the names of employees, we are again using the integral indexer defined on Company class.
company[2] = "Employee 2 Name Changed";

Notice that, because of the "employeeId" indexer, I am able to use company object like an array.