How to create a new object instance from a Type

The Activator class within the root System namespace is pretty powerful.

There are a lot of overloads for passing parameters to the constructor and such. Check out the documentation at:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.activator.createinstance.aspx

or (new path)

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.activator.createinstance

Here are some simple examples:

ObjectType instance = (ObjectType)Activator.CreateInstance(objectType);

ObjectType instance = (ObjectType)Activator.CreateInstance("MyAssembly","MyNamespace.ObjectType");

ObjectType instance = (ObjectType)Activator.CreateInstance(objectType);

The Activator class has a generic variant that makes this a bit easier:

ObjectType instance = Activator.CreateInstance<ObjectType>();

If this is for something that will be called a lot in an application instance, it's a lot faster to compile and cache dynamic code instead of using the activator or ConstructorInfo.Invoke(). Two easy options for dynamic compilation are compiled Linq Expressions or some simple IL opcodes and DynamicMethod. Either way, the difference is huge when you start getting into tight loops or multiple calls.