Best way to determine if an instance is of a specific type

Question

I'm working on a C# project, and I found myself with this situation:

TypeCode code = value == null ? TypeCode.DBNull : TypeCode.GetTypeCode(value.GetType());

switch(code) {
    case TypeCode.DBNull: data = SerializeNull(); break;
    case TypeCode.String: data = SerializeString((String) value); break;
    case TypeCode.Int32: data = SerializeInt32((Int32) value); break;
    // ... MORE TYPES
}

My question is:

Is there any advantage of using this "type determination" technique over this one?:

if(value == null) data = SerializeNull();
else if(value is String) data = SerializeString((String) value);
else if(value is Int32) data = SerializeInt32((Int32) value);

As for my opinion, I find the last one more readable and easy to implement.

I still wanted to know if maybe there's a performance issue

Thanks in advance

This seems like it is still a problem, since `data` is likely just an `object` and will have to be downcast later. Is there a reason this data is not strongly typed? — BradleyDotNET, Jun 26 '14 at 17:01
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/983030/type-checking-typeof-gettype-or-is Runtime vs compile time vs inheritance :) — user3779753, Jun 26 '14 at 17:09
Cannot use TypeCode for a custom object e.g. value is MyClass but you may not need to do that. — paparazzo, Jun 26 '14 at 17:15
@BradleyDotNET data is just a byte array that contains the serialized bytes of the given value. — Matias Cicero, Jun 26 '14 at 17:29
@user3779753 That question seems to be a duplicate. I'm gonna read it and keep you in touch — Matias Cicero, Jun 26 '14 at 17:30

Best way to determine if an instance is of a specific type

0 Answers0