Convert “C# friendly type” name to actual type: “int” => typeof(int)

Question

I want to get a System.Type given a string that specifies a (primitive) type\'s C# friendly name, basically the way the C# compiler d

Answer 1

Don't you have most of if worked out already?

The following gives you all built-in C# types as per http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ya5y69ds.aspx, plus void.

using Microsoft.CSharp;
using System;
using System.CodeDom;
using System.Reflection;

namespace CSTypeNames
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            // Resolve reference to mscorlib.
            // int is an arbitrarily chosen type in mscorlib
            var mscorlib = Assembly.GetAssembly(typeof(int));

            using (var provider = new CSharpCodeProvider())
            {
                foreach (var type in mscorlib.DefinedTypes)
                {
                    if (string.Equals(type.Namespace, "System"))
                    {
                        var typeRef = new CodeTypeReference(type);
                        var csTypeName = provider.GetTypeOutput(typeRef);

                        // Ignore qualified types.
                        if (csTypeName.IndexOf('.') == -1)
                        {
                            Console.WriteLine(csTypeName + " : " + type.FullName);
                        }
                    }
                }
            }

            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
}

This is based on several assumptions which I believe to be correct as at the time of writing:

• All built-in C# types are part of mscorlib.dll.
• All built-in C# types are aliases of types defined in the System namespace.
• Only built-in C# types' names returned by the call to CSharpCodeProvider.GetTypeOutput do not have a single '.' in them.

Output:

object : System.Object
string : System.String
bool : System.Boolean
byte : System.Byte
char : System.Char
decimal : System.Decimal
double : System.Double
short : System.Int16
int : System.Int32
long : System.Int64
sbyte : System.SByte
float : System.Single
ushort : System.UInt16
uint : System.UInt32
ulong : System.UInt64
void : System.Void

Now I just have to sit and wait for Eric to come and tell me just how wrong I am. I have accepted my fate.