.net - C# Pass a property by reference

Question

Is there anyway to pass the property of an Object by reference? I know I can pass the whole object but I want to specify a property of the object to set and check it's type so I know how to parse. Should I maybe take another approach (I cannot change the original object in anyway)?

public class Foo{
    public Foo(){}
    public int Age { get; set; }
}

private void setFromQueryString(object aProperty, String queryString, HttpContext context)
{
    //here I want to handle pulling the values out of 
    //the query string and parsing them or setting them
    //to null or empty string...
    String valueString = context.Request.QueryString[queryString].ToString(); 

    //I need to check the type of the property that I am setting.

    //this is null so I can't check it's type
    Type t = aProperty.GetType();
}

private void callingMethod(HttpContext context)
{
    Foo myFoo = new Foo();
    setFromQueryString(myFoo.Age, "inputAge", context);
}

Answer 1

You can call the function with a lambda expression:

private void setFromQueryString<T>(Action<T> setter, String queryString, HttpContext context) 
{ 
    //here I want to handle pulling the values out of  
    //the query string and parsing them or setting them 
    //to null or empty string... 
    String valueString = context.Request.QueryString[queryString].ToString();  

    //I need to check the type of the property that I am setting. 

    //this is null so I can't check it's type 
    Type t = typeof(T); 
    ...
    setter(value);
} 

You would call it like this:

setFromQueryString<int>(i => myFoo.Age = i, "inputAge", context);

EDIT: If you really want type inference:

private void setFromQueryString<T>(Func<T> getter, Action<T> setter, String queryString, HttpContext context) {
    ...
}
setFromQueryString(() => myFoo.Age, i => myFoo.Age = i, "inputAge", context);