Dynamically create an object of <Type>

thaBadDawg_48832 0
Viewed 98191

I have a table in my database that I use to manage relationships across my application. it's pretty basic in it's nature - parentType,parentId, childType, childId... all as ints. I've done this setup before, but I did it with a switch/case setup when I had 6 different tables I was trying to link. Now I have 30 tables that I'm trying to do this with and I would like to be able to do this without having to write 30 case entries in my switch command.

Is there a way that I can make reference to a .Net class using a string? I know this isn't valid (because I've tried several variations of this):

Type t = Type.GetType("WebCore.Models.Page");
object page = new t();

I know how to get the Type of an object, but how do I use that on the fly to create a new object?

dynamic .net c#
6 Answers
user_188110

If the type is known by the caller, there's a better, faster way than using Activator.CreateInstance: you can instead use a generic constraint on the method that specifies it has a default parameterless constructor.

Doing it this way is type-safe and doesn't require reflection.

T CreateType<T>() where T : new()
{
   return new T();
}
Judah_Himango_5360

You want to use Activator.CreateInstance.

Here is an example of how it works:

using System;
using System.Runtime.Remoting;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        ObjectHandle o = Activator.CreateInstance("mscorlib.dll", "System.Int32");

        Int32 i = (Int32)o.Unwrap();
    }
}
Andrew_Hare_342110

Assuming you have the following type:

public class Counter<T>
{
  public T Value { get; set; }
}

and have the assembly qualified name of the type, you can construct it in the following manner:

string typeName = typeof(Counter<>).AssemblyQualifiedName;
Type t = Type.GetType(typeName);

Counter<int> counter = 
  (Counter<int>)Activator.CreateInstance(
    t.MakeGenericType(typeof(int)));

counter.Value++;
Console.WriteLine(counter.Value);
sduplooy_317700
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