c# - Dictionary <string,string> map to an object using Automapper

Question

Below code is just for this question

I am having a class like

public User class
{
 public string Name{get;set;}
 public string Age{get;set;
}

I am having a dictionary like

Dictionary<string,string> data= new Dictionary<string,string>(); 
data.Add("Name","Rusi");
data.Add("Age","23");

User user= new User();

Now i want to map User object to this dictionary using Automapper. Automapper maps properties of objects but in my case there a dictionary and object.

So, Please suggest me how can i do this

Answer 1

AutoMapper maps between properties of objects and is not supposed to operate in such scenarios. In this case you need Reflection magic. You could cheat by an intermediate serialization:

var data = new Dictionary<string, string>();
data.Add("Name", "Rusi");
data.Add("Age", "23");
var serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
var user = serializer.Deserialize<User>(serializer.Serialize(data));

And if you insist on using AutoMapper you could for example do something along the lines of:

Mapper
    .CreateMap<Dictionary<string, string>, User>()
    .ConvertUsing(x =>
    {
        var serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
        return serializer.Deserialize<User>(serializer.Serialize(x));
    });

and then:

var data = new Dictionary<string, string>();
data.Add("Name", "Rusi");
data.Add("Age", "23");
var user = Mapper.Map<Dictionary<string, string>, User>(data);

If you need to handle more complex object hierarchies with sub-objects you must ask yourself the following question: Is Dictionary<string, string> the correct data structure to use in this case?