How do i use Activator.CreateInstance with strings?

Question

In my reflection code i hit a problem with my generic section of code. Specifically when i use a string.

var oVal = (object)\"Test\";
var oType = oVal.GetType();         


        

Answer 1

This is what I use in my projects. As far as needing to create an instantiation of a type of object and not knowing at design time, is rather normal for me. Perhaps you are cycling through object properties and you want to instantiate all of them dynamically. I have many times needed to create then assign values to non instantiated POCO objects... with the below code you can use a string value stored in the DB to instantiate an object as well or instantiate an object stored in a library that is referencing your library - so you can bypass circular reference errors as well... Hope it helps.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Reflection;

/// 

/// Instantiates an object. Must pass PropertyType.AssemblyQualifiedName for factory to operate
/// returns instantiated object
/// 
/// 
/// 
public static object Create(string typeAssemblyQualifiedName)
{
  // resolve the type
  Type targetType = ResolveType(typeAssemblyQualifiedName);
  if (targetType == null)
    throw new ArgumentException("Unable to resolve object type: " + typeAssemblyQualifiedName);

  return Create(targetType);
}

/// 

/// create by type of T
/// 
/// 
/// 
public static T Create()
{
  Type targetType = typeof(T);
  return (T)Create(targetType);
}

/// 

/// general object creation
/// 
/// 
/// 
public static object Create(Type targetType)
{
  //string test first - it has no parameterless constructor
  if (Type.GetTypeCode(targetType) == TypeCode.String)
    return string.Empty;

  // get the default constructor and instantiate
  Type[] types = new Type[0];
  ConstructorInfo info = targetType.GetConstructor(types);
  object targetObject = null;

  if (info == null) //must not have found the constructor
    if (targetType.BaseType.UnderlyingSystemType.FullName.Contains("Enum"))
      targetObject = Activator.CreateInstance(targetType);
    else
      throw new ArgumentException("Unable to instantiate type: " + targetType.AssemblyQualifiedName + " - Constructor not found");
  else
    targetObject = info.Invoke(null);

  if (targetObject == null)
    throw new ArgumentException("Unable to instantiate type: " + targetType.AssemblyQualifiedName + " - Unknown Error");
  return targetObject;
}

/// 

/// Loads the assembly of an object. Must pass PropertyType.AssemblyQualifiedName for factory to operate
/// Returns the object type.
/// 
/// 
/// 
public static Type ResolveType(string typeAssemblyQualifiedName)
{
  int commaIndex = typeAssemblyQualifiedName.IndexOf(",");
  string className = typeAssemblyQualifiedName.Substring(0, commaIndex).Trim();
  string assemblyName = typeAssemblyQualifiedName.Substring(commaIndex + 1).Trim();

  if (className.Contains("[]"))
    className.Remove(className.IndexOf("[]"), 2);

  // Get the assembly containing the handler
  Assembly assembly = null;
  try
  {
    assembly = Assembly.Load(assemblyName);
  }
  catch
  {
    try
    {
      assembly = Assembly.LoadWithPartialName(assemblyName);//yes yes this is obsolete but it is only a backup call
    }
    catch
    {
      throw new ArgumentException("Can't load assembly " + assemblyName);
    }
  }

  // Get the handler
  return assembly.GetType(className, false, false);
}