How do you make a class method modify itself? - asp.net

Question

asp.net C#4
I have a simple class to working with query strings.
A new instance is created like this:
public QueryString(string querystring)
{
try
{
_table = new Hashtable();
if (querystring.Length > 0)
{
foreach (string pair in querystring.Split('&'))
{
string[] item = pair.Split('=');
_table.Add(item[0].ToLower(), item[1]);
}
}
}
catch (Exception)
{
}
}
I want to add a method to this that will remove a key value pair. I don't want it to return a new querystring, I just want it to remove the pair from the current instance. Not sure how to do that since it says I can't assign a value to 'this'
public void Remove(string key)
{
String querystring = this.ToString();
try
{
_table = new Hashtable();
if (key.Length > 0)
{
foreach (string pair in querystring.Split('&'))
{
string[] item = pair.Split('=');
if (item[0] != key)
{
_table.Add(item[0].ToLower(), item[1]);
}
}
this = _table;
}
}
catch (Exception)
{
}
}

Answer 1

You're overcomplicating things. Since your class's state is made up of the _table field, all you need to do is remove the item with the given key from that field.
The following example replaces your untyped Hashtable wit a strongly-typed Dictionary. I also chose to initialize the dictionary with a LINQ statement, but you could keep your old code there if you prefer.
public class QueryString
{
private readonly Dictionary<string, string> _table;
public QueryString(string querystring)
{
if (querystring.Length > 0)
{
var pairs =
from pair in querystring.Split('&')
let item = pair.Split('=')
select new {key = item[0], value = item[1]};
_table = pairs.ToDictionary(p => p.key, p => p.value);
}
}
public void Remove(string key)
{
_table.Remove(key);
}
}

Answer 2

You cannot assign a value to this since it is a reference to the object itself.
However, if you remove the line this = _table; , isn't things working as they should then? I guess your ToString() is somewhat using the hashtable to generate a "printer friendly" QueryString, and if that is the case, the way I see it, your Remove() method should be working (since you are replacing the _table variable with a new HashTable not including the key-value pair you want to exclude).

Answer 3

you are passing a querystring into the class so the original querystring IS intact.
However you then break down the querystring into a a Hashtable of key/value pairs. If you want to keep THAT intact you need to clone the HashTable and perform the remove on the clone.
In any case it's probably a good idea to keep the querystring you are passing in as a constructor parameter in a member variable for safe keeping.