Why can't I make a static indexer?

[Sam Martin]

Basically, i've got a class called RegularExpressi ons which contains a
private Hashtable of RegExps used in my apps.

I obviously don't want to give full public access to the Hashtable, so I'd
like to define a static indexer so that the following syntax is possible

e.g.
ns.RegularExpre ssions[RegEx.PostCode]

I've got a static method that does this, but i want to know if it's possible
to create a static indexer?

tia
sam martin

[Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]]

Re: Why can't I make a static indexer?

Sam,

No, it is not (if it was, they might have chosen a better word to
represent it).

I believe that the intent behind an indexer is to represent ways of
accessing items in collections (think of collections as a generic term
here). Your RegularExpressi ons class doesn't appear to be strictly a
collection (then again, that's hard to say). Rather, create a strongly
typed collection which returns your expressions, and then expose that
through a static property. Your syntax would be:

ns.RegularExpre ssions.Expressi ons[RegEx.PostCode]

Hope this helps.


--
- Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]
- mvp@spam.guard. caspershouse.co m

"Sam Martin" <sambomartin@ya hoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:uFLY3mzxEH A.1564@TK2MSFTN GP09.phx.gbl...[color=blue]
> Basically, i've got a class called RegularExpressi ons which contains a
> private Hashtable of RegExps used in my apps.
>
> I obviously don't want to give full public access to the Hashtable, so I'd
> like to define a static indexer so that the following syntax is possible
>
> e.g.
> ns.RegularExpre ssions[RegEx.PostCode]
>
> I've got a static method that does this, but i want to know if it's
> possible to create a static indexer?
>
> tia
> sam martin
>[/color]

[Richard Blewett [DevelopMentor]]

Re: Why can't I make a static indexer?

I wrote a blog entry a while back precisely about this issue. You can read it here:

http://www.dotnetconsult.co.uk/weblog/PermaLink.aspx/69ec7c34-ae29-4778-952b-1b6539303e6b

Regards

Richard Blewett - DevelopMentor

http://www.dotnetconsult.co.uk/weblog/

http://www.dotnetconsult.co.uk

nntp://news.microsoft. com/microsoft.publi c.dotnet.langua ges.csharp/<uFLY3mzxEHA.15 64@TK2MSFTNGP09 .phx.gbl>

Basically, i've got a class called RegularExpressi ons which contains a
private Hashtable of RegExps used in my apps.

I obviously don't want to give full public access to the Hashtable, so I'd
like to define a static indexer so that the following syntax is possible

e.g.
ns.RegularExpre ssions[RegEx.PostCode]

I've got a static method that does this, but i want to know if it's possible
to create a static indexer?

tia
sam martin

[Sam Martin]

Re: Why can't I make a static indexer?

thanks

"Sam Martin" <sambomartin@ya hoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:uFLY3mzxEH A.1564@TK2MSFTN GP09.phx.gbl...[color=blue]
> Basically, i've got a class called RegularExpressi ons which contains a
> private Hashtable of RegExps used in my apps.
>
> I obviously don't want to give full public access to the Hashtable, so I'd
> like to define a static indexer so that the following syntax is possible
>
> e.g.
> ns.RegularExpre ssions[RegEx.PostCode]
>
> I've got a static method that does this, but i want to know if it's
> possible to create a static indexer?
>
> tia
> sam martin
>[/color]