Convert the model's fields as Dictionary in another model's field

Question

I have this model:

namespace SomeApp.Models
{
    public class FirstModel
    {
        public int uid { get; set; }
        public string? id { get; set; }
        public string? firstname { get; set; }
        public string? lastname { get; set; }
     }
}

whose fields I need to convert to a dictionary or JSON object in another model. I'm using the GetFields Method.

namespace SomeApp.Models
{
    public class SecondModel
    {
        // other fields


        public Dictionary<string, string> FirstModelTransfer { get; set; }

        public void SetFirstModelTransfer(FirstModel firstModel)
        {
            FieldInfo[] firstModelFields = typeof(FirstModel).GetFields();

            Dictionary<string, string> dict = new();

            foreach (var firstModelField in firstModelFields)
            {
                string fieldName = firstModelField.Name;
                string fieldValue = firstModelField.GetValue(fieldName).ToString();

                dict[fieldName] = fieldValue;
            }

            FirstModelTransfer = dict;
        }
    }
}

I want the result to look like

{
  // other fields
  "FirstModelTransfer": {
    "firstname": "Sample firstname",
    "lastname": "Sample lastname"
  }
}

But currently, it looks like this,

{
  // other fields
  "FirstModelTransfer": {
    "additionalProp1": "string",
    "additionalProp2": "string",
    "additionalProp3": "string"
  }
}

I don't know if this matters but:

services.AddDbContext<SecondModelsContext>();
services.AddDbContext<FirsModelsContext>();

This is the ordering of the dbContexts in which each model was registered.

Answer 1

From your code, you are trying to get the properties but not fields in FirstModel class.

Thus, you should get the properties as PropertyInfo[] via GetProperties().

PropertyInfo[] firstModelFields = typeof(FirstModel).GetProperties();

To get the property value via Reflection, you have to pass the object instance as mentioned in PropertyInfo.GetValue(Object) method.

string fieldValue = firstModelField.GetValue(firstModel)?.ToString();

---

Alternatively, you may use the Newtonsoft.Json library to convert an object into a Dictionary<string, string> instance without Reflection.

using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;

dict = JObject.FromObject(firstModel)
    .ToObject<Dictionary<string, string>>();