Get property value from string using reflection

 public static object GetPropValue(object src, string propName)
 {
     return src.GetType().GetProperty(propName).GetValue(src, null);
 }

Of course, you will want to add validation and whatnot, but that is the gist of it.

How about something like this:

public static Object GetPropValue(this Object obj, String name) {
    foreach (String part in name.Split('.')) {
        if (obj == null) { return null; }

        Type type = obj.GetType();
        PropertyInfo info = type.GetProperty(part);
        if (info == null) { return null; }

        obj = info.GetValue(obj, null);
    }
    return obj;
}

public static T GetPropValue<T>(this Object obj, String name) {
    Object retval = GetPropValue(obj, name);
    if (retval == null) { return default(T); }

    // throws InvalidCastException if types are incompatible
    return (T) retval;
}

This will allow you to descend into properties using a single string, like this:

DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
int min = GetPropValue<int>(now, "TimeOfDay.Minutes");
int hrs = now.GetPropValue<int>("TimeOfDay.Hours");

You can either use these methods as static methods or extensions.

What about using the CallByName of the Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace (Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll)? It uses reflection to get properties, fields, and methods of normal objects, COM objects, and even dynamic objects.

using Microsoft.VisualBasic;
using Microsoft.VisualBasic.CompilerServices;

and then

Versioned.CallByName(this, "method/function/prop name", CallType.Get).ToString();

The below method works perfect for me:

class MyClass {
    public string prop1 { set; get; }

    public object this[string propertyName]
    {
        get { return this.GetType().GetProperty(propertyName).GetValue(this, null); }
        set { this.GetType().GetProperty(propertyName).SetValue(this, value, null); }
    }
}

To get the property value:

MyClass t1 = new MyClass();
...
string value = t1["prop1"].ToString();

To set the property value:

t1["prop1"] = value;

public static TValue GetFieldValue<TValue>(this object instance, string name)
{
    var type = instance.GetType(); 
    var field = type.GetFields(BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.Instance).FirstOrDefault(e => typeof(TValue).IsAssignableFrom(e.FieldType) && e.Name == name);
    return (TValue)field?.GetValue(instance);
}

public static TValue GetPropertyValue<TValue>(this object instance, string name)
{
    var type = instance.GetType();
    var field = type.GetProperties(BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.Instance).FirstOrDefault(e => typeof(TValue).IsAssignableFrom(e.PropertyType) && e.Name == name);
    return (TValue)field?.GetValue(instance);
}

You never mention what object you are inspecting, and since you are rejecting ones that reference a given object, I will assume you mean a static one.

using System.Reflection;
public object GetPropValue(string prop)
{
    int splitPoint = prop.LastIndexOf('.');
    Type type = Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().GetType(prop.Substring(0, splitPoint));
    object obj = null;
    return type.GetProperty(prop.Substring(splitPoint + 1)).GetValue(obj, null);
}

Note that I marked the object that is being inspected with the local variable obj. null means static, otherwise set it to what you want. Also note that the GetEntryAssembly() is one of a few available methods to get the "running" assembly, you may want to play around with it if you are having a hard time loading the type.

Have a look at the Heleonix.Reflection library. You can get/set/invoke members by paths, or create a getter/setter (lambda compiled into a delegate) which is faster than reflection. For example:

var success = Reflector.Get(DateTime.Now, null, "Date.Year", out int value);

Or create a getter once and cache for reuse (this is more performant but might throw NullReferenceException if an intermediate member is null):

var getter = Reflector.CreateGetter<DateTime, int>("Date.Year", typeof(DateTime));
getter(DateTime.Now);

Or if you want to create a List<Action<object, object>> of different getters, just specify base types for compiled delegates (type conversions will be added into compiled lambdas):

var getter = Reflector.CreateGetter<object, object>("Date.Year", typeof(DateTime));
getter(DateTime.Now);

Although the original question was about how to get the value of the property using only a single string as the parameter, it makes a lot of sense here to use an Expression rather than simply a string to ensure that the caller never uses a hard coded property name. Here is a one line version with usage:

public static class Utils
...
    public static TVal GetPropertyValue<T, TVal>(T t, Expression<Func<T, TVal>> x)
        => (TVal)((x.Body as MemberExpression)?.Member as PropertyInfo)!.GetValue(t);

...
    var val = Utils.GetPropertyValue(foo,  p => p.Bar);

Here is a slightly better version in terms of readability a error handling:

public static TVal GetPropertyValue<T, TVal>(T t, Expression<Func<T, TVal>> x)
{
    var m = (x.Body as MemberExpression)?.Member
    var p = m as PropertyInfo;

    if (null == p)
        throw new ArgumentException($"Unknown property: {typeof(T).Name}.{(m?.Name??"???")}");

    return (TVal)p.GetValue(t);
}

In short you pass in a lambda expression reading a property. The body of the lambda - the part on the right of the fat arrow - is a member expression from which you can get the member name and which you can cast to a PropertyInfo, provided the member is actually a Property and not, for instance, a method.

In the short version, the null forgiving operator - the ! in the expression - tells the compiler that the PropertyInfo will not be null. This is a big lie and you will get a NullReferenceException at runtime. The longer version gives you the name of the property if it manages to get it.

PS: Thanks to Oleg G. for the initial version of this code :)

Here's what I got based on other answers. A little overkill on getting so specific with the error handling.

public static T GetPropertyValue<T>(object sourceInstance, string targetPropertyName, bool throwExceptionIfNotExists = false)
{
    string errorMsg = null;

    try
    {
        if (sourceInstance == null || string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(targetPropertyName))
        {
            errorMsg = $"Source object is null or property name is null or whitespace. '{targetPropertyName}'";
            Log.Warn(errorMsg);

            if (throwExceptionIfNotExists)
                throw new ArgumentException(errorMsg);
            else
                return default(T);
        }

        Type returnType = typeof(T);
        Type sourceType = sourceInstance.GetType();

        PropertyInfo propertyInfo = sourceType.GetProperty(targetPropertyName, returnType);
        if (propertyInfo == null)
        {
            errorMsg = $"Property name '{targetPropertyName}' of type '{returnType}' not found for source object of type '{sourceType}'";
            Log.Warn(errorMsg);

            if (throwExceptionIfNotExists)
                throw new ArgumentException(errorMsg);
            else
                return default(T);
        }

        return (T)propertyInfo.GetValue(sourceInstance, null);
    }
    catch(Exception ex)
    {
        errorMsg = $"Problem getting property name '{targetPropertyName}' from source instance.";
        Log.Error(errorMsg, ex);

        if (throwExceptionIfNotExists)
            throw;
    }

    return default(T);
}