Is there an easy way to convert object properties to a dictionary<string, string>

Assuming that data is some object and that you want to put its public properties into a Dictionary then you could try:

Original - here for historical reasons (2012):

Dictionary<string, string> FD = (from x in data.GetType().GetProperties() select x)    .ToDictionary (x => x.Name, x => (x.GetGetMethod().Invoke (data, null) == null ? "" : x.GetGetMethod().Invoke (data, null).ToString()));

Updated (2017):

Dictionary<string, string> dictionary = data.GetType().GetProperties()    .ToDictionary(x => x.Name, x => x.GetValue(data)?.ToString() ?? "");

The HtmlHelper class allows a conversion of Anonymouns Object to RouteValueDictonary and I suppose you could use a .ToString() on each value to get the string repersentation:

 var linkAttributes = System.Web.Mvc.HtmlHelper.AnonymousObjectToHtmlAttributes(linkHtmlAttributes);

The down side is this is part of the ASP.NET MVC Framework. Using a .NET Reflector, the code inside of the method is as follows:

public static RouteValueDictionary AnonymousObjectToHtmlAttributes(object htmlAttributes){   RouteValueDictionary dictionary = new RouteValueDictionary();  if (htmlAttributes != null)  {     foreach (PropertyDescriptor descriptor in TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(htmlAttributes))     {            dictionary.Add(descriptor.Name.Replace('_', '-'), descriptor.GetValue(htmlAttributes));       } }    return dictionary; }

You'll see that this code is identical to the answer Yahia gave you, and his answer provides a Dictonary<string,string>. With the reflected code I gave you you could easily convert a RouteValueDictionary to Dictonary<string,string> but Yahia's answer is a one liner.

EDIT - I've added the code for what could be a method to do your conversion:

EDIT 2 - I've added null checking to the code and used String.Format for the string value

    public static Dictionary<string, string> ObjectToDictionary(object value)    {        Dictionary<string, string> dictionary = new Dictionary<string, string>();        if (value != null)        {            foreach (System.ComponentModel.PropertyDescriptor descriptor in System.ComponentModel.TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(value))            {                if(descriptor != null && descriptor.Name != null)                {                     object propValue = descriptor.GetValue(value);                     if(propValue != null)                          dictionary.Add(descriptor.Name,String.Format("{0}",propValue));            }        }        return dictionary;    }

And to go from a Dictionary to an object check http://automapper.org/ which was suggested in this thread Convert dictionary to anonymous object

var myDict = myObj.ToDictionary(); //returns all public fields & properties

.

public static class MyExtensions{    public static Dictionary<string, object> ToDictionary(this object myObj)    {        return myObj.GetType()            .GetProperties()            .Select(pi => new { Name = pi.Name, Value = pi.GetValue(myObj, null) })            .Union(                 myObj.GetType()                .GetFields()                .Select(fi => new { Name = fi.Name, Value = fi.GetValue(myObj) })             )            .ToDictionary(ks => ks.Name, vs => vs.Value);    }}