RE: [aus-dotnet] Many instance variables inside a class

[Daryl Sivies]

Lots of properties are evil if your object is being called remotely and the
caller has to make multiple trips. If the object is local, not a problem.

Do you need all the properties? Just because the database has 70 columns
doesn't mean your business object needs 70 properties. The business object
may ignore some of the data, merge some of the data, or derive additional
properties.

-----Original Message-----
From: dotnet-owner@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:dotnet-owner@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Grant Maw
Sent: Friday, 10 December 2004 11:53 AM
To: dotnet@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [aus-dotnet] Many instance variables inside a class

Thanks all for the replies. Seems that having lots of properties might
not be such an evil thing to do after all (though I do recall reading
on some guru's blog that one should always try to have more methods
than properties in one's classes).

The class is daunting to new programmers who have never used it
before, so perhaps grouping related data into structs might be the
answer.

Cheers!

On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 11:30:19 +1100, David Kean <David.Kean@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> Well, you could break the Person down into 'properties' classes, however
> classes with just data and no methods just feel wrong.
> 
> For example:
> 
> Instead of:
> 
> Person.Title
> Person.FirstName
> Person.MiddleName
> Person.LastName
> 
> Have
> 
> Person.Name.Title
> Person.Name.FirstName
> Person.Name.MiddleName
> Person.Name.LastName
> 
> Where Name is a instance class of a PersonName class with those
> properties.
> 
> It will make Person a little easier to deal with, being confronted with
> 70 properties can be daunting.
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dotnet-owner@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:dotnet-owner@xxxxxxxxxxx] On
> Behalf Of Grant Maw
> Sent: Friday, 10 December 2004 11:23 AM
> To: dotnet@xxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [aus-dotnet] Many instance variables inside a class
> 
> The data has already been normalised to 3NF. This is a massive database
> and if we did not have normalised data the whole thing would have come
> crashing down around our ears years ago.
> 
> All I'm after is a way to represent any entity that, by it's nature, has
> lots and lots of data attached to it. It feels to me that having a class
> with so many properties is using the class incorrectly - using it as a
> bucket of bits rather than as a functional entity.
> 
> On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 11:16:28 +1100, David Kean <David.Kean@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> > Yep it's called normalizing!  70 columns for 1 table sounds way too
> > many, have you thought about looking at the database side first?
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: dotnet-owner@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:dotnet-owner@xxxxxxxxxxx] On
> > Behalf Of Grant Maw
> > Sent: Friday, 10 December 2004 11:13 AM
> > To: dotnet@xxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: [aus-dotnet] Many instance variables inside a class
> >
> > Hi all
> >
> > I have a situation where I have a class called "Person" which, rather
> > obviously, holds the data and methods for working with the Person
> > entity in our app.
> >
> > The DB entry for a person has some 70 columns and this has translated
> > into 70 properties of the Person class. There is one method to load
> > the data rom the DB, and another to update it. The update method does
> > all the validation and throws exceptions if any of the data violates
> > business rules.
> >
> > The class works well so maybe I'm over-reacting here, but having a
> > class with such a large number of properties just feels wrong. I
> > haven't found anything in MSDN that explicitly deals with this
> > situation.
> >
> > Is there a better way of dealing with situations where an entity has
> > lots of different properties?
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> > - Grant
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