How can I get a collection's parent object?

Question

In C#, if I have an object that has a collection, is it possible to retrieve the object that contains the collection?

Here is an example:

public class TestObject
{
    public string name { get; set; }
    public TestObjectCollection testObjects{ get; set; } 
}

The TestObjectCollection collection inherits from CollectionBase and is a collection of TestObjects.

Here is an example implementation:

• A TestObject is created with a name of "Test1"
• The TestObject with the name of "Test1" has a TestObjectCollection with a TestObject with a name of "Test2"

If I have the TestObject with the name of "Test2", how can I get the TestObject with the name of "Test1"

Thanks

Answer 1

The only way to do this is to keep a reference to the parent in the child object. You can do this while creating the child object:

this.testObjects = new TestObjectCollection(this);

Then in TestObjectCollection's constructor:

public TestObject ParentObject { get; set; }

public TestObjectCollection(TestObject parent)
{
    ParentObject = parent;
    ...
}