how to use the variable as the name of an object?

it might be very simple or been asked before, so forgive me for asking it again. im trying to learn 🙂

if I had a string type variable in C# which would take any of the following values:
"Admin"
"Editor"
"Viewer"
and i also had 3 userforms with the same names as above, is there any way to simply use the variables value to call out a userform instead of going through a switch or if/else statement?
like, can you have something like:
userform(x).show?
x being the variable

would appreciate it alot!

>Solution :

1. For "types", you should use Enums.

public enum UserType
{
    Admin,
    Editor,
    Viewer,
}

2. If you have types that need string representations, you can let C# do it automatically for you, or write your own:

UserType userType = UserType.Admin;
string s = userType.ToString(); // "Admin"
string s2 = UserType.Admin.ToString(); // "Admin" as well

public static string GetType(UserType type) => type switch 
{
   UserType.Admin => "Boss",
   UserType.Editor => "Fact Checker",
   UserType.Viewer => "Reader Bee",
   _ => "",
};

For getting a form of that type, a Dictionary<UserType, Form> would be good:

Dictionary<UserType, Form> myForms = new(); // C#9 shorthand - "target typed new expression"
myForms.Add(UserType.Editor, editorForm);
myForms.Add(UserType.Admin, adminForm);
myForms.Add(UserType.Viewer, viewerForm);

editorForm.Text = UserType.Editor.ToString(); // use the built in string or...
editorForm.Text = GetType(UserType.Editor); // ... as defined above

If you want to show a specific form, then you can do:

UserType typeOfFormToShow = // ... 
myForms[typeOfFormToShow].Show(); // Ensure this form exists in your dictionary, though.