C# Universal Type Converter

using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Text; namespace UniversalTypeConverter { class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { Obj obj = new Obj(); obj["Name"] = "Joe"; obj["Age"] = 27; obj["StartDate"] = new DateTime(2002, 9, 8); Write(obj); obj["Name"] = "Mike"; obj["Age"] = 34; obj["StartDate"] = new DateTime(2005, 12, 5); Write(obj); Console.ReadLine(); } static void Write(Obj obj) { string name = obj["Name"]; int age = obj["Age"]; DateTime startDate = obj["StartDate"]; Console.WriteLine("name={0} age={1} start={2:d}", name, age, startDate); } } public class Obj { Dictionary m_PropValues = new Dictionary(); public PropValue this[string name] { get { PropValue prop = null; m_PropValues.TryGetValue(name, out prop); return prop; } set { if (m_PropValues.ContainsKey(name)) { m_PropValues[name] = value; } else { PropValue prop = value; m_PropValues.Add(name, prop); } } } } public class PropValue { private object m_Value; public object Value { get { return m_Value; } } public PropValue(object val) { m_Value = val; } public static implicit operator PropValue(int val) { return new PropValue(val); } public static implicit operator PropValue(string val) { return new PropValue(val); } public static implicit operator PropValue(DateTime val) { return new PropValue(val); } public static implicit operator int(PropValue prop) { return (prop.Value as int?) ?? -1; } public static implicit operator string(PropValue prop) { return (prop.Value as string) ?? string.Empty; } public static implicit operator DateTime(PropValue prop) { return (prop.Value as DateTime?) ?? DateTime.MinValue; } } }