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 my stab at it. I approached it using two similar libraries:

• Mono C# compiler-as-a-service
• MS Roslyn C# compiler

I think it's pretty clean and straightforward.

Here I'm using Mono's C# compiler-as-a-service, namely the Mono.CSharp.Evaluator class. (It's available as a Nuget package named, unsurprisingly, Mono.CSharp)

using Mono.CSharp;

    public static Type GetFriendlyType(string typeName)
    {
        //this class could use a default ctor with default sensible settings...
        var eval = new Mono.CSharp.Evaluator(new CompilerContext(
                                                 new CompilerSettings(),
                                                 new ConsoleReportPrinter()));

        //MAGIC! 
        object type = eval.Evaluate(string.Format("typeof({0});", typeName));

        return (Type)type;
    }

Up next: The counterpart from "the friends in building 41" aka Roslyn...

Later:

Roslyn is almost as easy to install - once you figure out what's what. I ended up using Nuget package "Roslyn.Compilers.CSharp" (Or get it as a VS add-in). Just be warned that Roslyn requires a .NET 4.5 project.

The code is even cleaner:

using Roslyn.Scripting.CSharp;

    public static Type GetFriendlyType(string typeName)
    {
        ScriptEngine engine = new ScriptEngine();
        var type = engine.CreateSession()
                         .Execute(string.Format("typeof({0})", typeName));
        return type;
    }