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

Here's one way to do it:

public Type GetType(string friendlyName)
{
    var provider = new CSharpCodeProvider();

    var pars = new CompilerParameters
    {
        GenerateExecutable = false,
        GenerateInMemory = true
    };

    string code = "public class TypeFullNameGetter"
                + "{"
                + "     public override string ToString()"
                + "     {"
                + "         return typeof(" + friendlyName + ").FullName;"
                + "     }"
                + "}";

    var comp = provider.CompileAssemblyFromSource(pars, new[] { code });

    if (comp.Errors.Count > 0)
        return null;

    object fullNameGetter = comp.CompiledAssembly.CreateInstance("TypeFullNameGetter");
    string fullName = fullNameGetter.ToString();            
    return Type.GetType(fullName);
}

Then if you pass in "int", "int[]" etc you get the corresponding type back.