Should I be using multiple events or a more verbose eventargs class?

Question

My program is receiving data on a serial port, after the data is received it can be interpreted in one of eight different ways.

If I want to trigger an event after the data is received, should I use one event and use something like an enum in my custom event arg class, or should I create 8 separate events? Basically I am wondering what the convention is for creating events.

My assumption would be that a new event should be created when it is distinguishable from the current events, but I am not sure which way to go with my example.

Edit: To clarify the situation, the program predominantly will be communicating with a device over a serial port, the method that receives input is as follows:

Should I do this?

void receive(byte[] somebytes)
{
    // After checking to make sure all bytes expected are received
    switch(somecase)
    {
        case 0: TriggerEvent(SomeEventArgs);break;
        case 1: TriggerEvent(SomeEventArgs);break;
        case 2: TriggerEvent(SomeEventArgs);break;
        case 3: TriggerEvent(SomeEventArgs);break;
        case 4: TriggerEvent(SomeEventArgs);break;
        case 5: TriggerEvent(SomeEventArgs);break;
        case 6: TriggerEvent(SomeEventArgs);break;
        case 7: TriggerEvent(SomeEventArgs);break;
        case 8: TriggerEvent(SomeEventArgs);break;
    }
}

OR this:

void receive(byte[] somebytes)
{
    // After checking to make sure all bytes expected are received
    switch(somecase)
    {
        case 0: Event0(LessEventArgs);break;
        case 1: Event1(LessEventArgs);break;
        case 2: Event2(LessEventArgs);break;
        case 3: Event3(LessEventArgs);break;
        case 4: Event4(LessEventArgs);break;
        case 5: Event5(LessEventArgs);break;
        case 6: Event6(LessEventArgs);break;
        case 7: Event7(LessEventArgs);break;
        case 8: Event8(LessEventArgs);break;
    }
}

Answer 1

Both solutions will work, but I think it's much easier to have a signle event.

If you have a single event, you just have to define an unique EventArgs<T> publish a single event in your class, and handle a single event.

All the logic to decide waht to do is in the "client class" that susbscribes to the event. This makes it easier to test and debug.

So you'd need:

• a class that publishes a single event
• a method that handles that event and dispatches the execution to the right method, depending on the event arg
• a method for handling each of the 8 cases.

If you do it this way, it's very easy to create a unit test to test the dispatcher method, and different unit tests to test each of the 8 methods.

Your "server class", which depends on external resoruces is simple. This is important becasue, it would be hard to debug an test the dispatcher that chose between eight events.

Think of the other implementaion, using 8 events: you'd get a more confusing and hard to test and debug code.

As a side note, I encourage you to read this thorough article on "C# Event Implementation Fundamentals, Best Practices and Conventions"

Answer 2

It really depends on what you're doing and on the greater context of your program. It's probably somewhat of a stylistic issue, but think of it this way: If you were dealing with regular variables and not events, would it be better to split them into eight different classes, or would it be better to have them all use the same class but have eight different values?

Answer 3

My personal preference is the 'less is more' approach, and I would create one Event, passing an Enum through the eventargs as you described.

I would compare this to KeyPressDown in the .NET library for desktop development. There isn't an AKeyPressed, BKeyPressed, EnterKeyPressed - it is encapsulated in one method for a neat and intuitive implementation.

Answer 4

Not knowing what your program looks like exactly, it is a little bit hard to judge. But I would suggest you create 8 seperate events to keep overview and to prevent making one very by event handler method.