C#: Using Reflection to Instantiate a Generic Class in .Net
Reflection has many purposes, but what happens if one wants to instantiate a generic class? How does one specify the what makes the class generic to instantiate it? The trick is to use the MakeGenericType to make the argument(s) and then call create Instance. Here is a code snippet:
Type d1 = typeof(List<>);
Type[] typeArgs = { typeof(string) };
Type makeme = d1.MakeGenericType(typeArgs);
object o = Activator.CreateInstance(makeme);
List<string> itsMe = o as List<string>;
Console.WriteLine((itsMe == null) ? "Failed" : "Succeeded");
Here is what is going on
- Line 1 We get the type as normal.
- Line 3 Create an array of the arguments we are interested in.
- Line 5 Call MakeGenericType to do the magic
- Line 7 Create the object.
How can we create the instance with Reflection.Emit ??
Hi,
thanks for this snippet. Very cool :)
Cheers
Max
Thanks for the snippet, it saved me some time
//A shortened version of the same code
List genericList = (List)Activator.CreateInstance(typeof(List).MakeGenericType(typeof(string)));
very helpful solution, thanks allot.
Hi,
On line 9, you have to know at compile time that you want a List.
What can you do if you only know you want string at runtime?
How can you tell the C# .NET that “o” is a List where x is not known until runtime? Is there a way to access the methods of List from “o”?
By the way, the formatting got a bit messed up in my post. Looks like using angled brackets causes a problem.
Should be:
Hi,
On line 9, you have to know at compile time that you want a List OpenAngleBracket string CloseAngleBracket.
What can you do if you only know you want string at runtime?
How can you tell the C# .NET that “o” is a List OpenAngleBracket x CloseAngleBracket where x is not known until runtime? Is there a way to access the methods of List OpenAngleBracket CloseAngleBracket from “o”?
Thanks for the above code snippet. It is really helpful.
Hi, thanks for your code first.
I encounter one similar situation recently. i need to read some configuration to load and create objects dynamically.
IPlugin is generic in my code, which is public interface IPlugin.
And concrete plugin implements IPlugin in another different assembly, which is public class ConcretePlugin : IPlugin.
in my config file, i specify the assembly name and also class name of ConcretePlugin.
In my main app, I use the following code to create instance:
Type ct = Assembly.Load(assemblyName).GetType(className);
Activator.CreateInstance(ct.MakeGenericType(typeof(int));
As it is a generic type, i have to config the class name as “ConcretePlugin`1” rather than “ConcretePlugin”, i don’t think it is very beautiful to write configuration like this.
Do u know any ways to improve this? thx.
No it sounds good. You might want to decorate your classes with custom attributes for extra info when/if needed.
On line 9, you have to know at compile time that you want a List OpenAngleBracket string CloseAngleBracket.
What can you do if you only know you want string at runtime?
How can you tell the C# .NET that “o” is a List OpenAngleBracket x CloseAngleBracket where x is not known until runtime? Is there a way to access the methods of List OpenAngleBracket CloseAngleBracket from “o”?
Once one knows the type, such as using typeof( -object goes here-), one can call the method GetGenericArguments() on its result to get its generic arguments.
Such as this Generic method to do the same as above
public static TPrimary Instantiate<TPrimary>() { Type primary = typeof(TPrimary); var ofType = primary.GetGenericArguments(); var typeDef = primary.GetGenericTypeDefinition(); return (TPrimary)Activator.CreateInstance(primary); }HTH
Really this is a good article, which helps a lot for beginners as me as well as developer.
This link….
http://www.mindstick.com/Blog/165/Generic%20class%20in%20c
also helpful to understand about generic class in C#
Thanks.
Thanks for good tip. I’ve actually covered the same topic in my blog. So maybe it may be of interest: http://mkartak.blogspot.ie/2012/03/reflection-working-with-generic-types.html