Get class by string value

Question

I have an abstract class with a few derived class

public abstract class MyObject
{
    public string name { get; set; }
    public bool IsObject(string pattern);         


        

Answer 1

Yes, use Reflection.

You can use Type.GetType to get an instance of the Type for the class by string, then instantiate it using Activator.CreateInstance, something like this:

public MyObject Create(string pattern)
{
    Type t = Type.GetType(pattern);
    if (t == null) {
        throw new Exception("Type " + pattern + " not found.");
    }
    return Activator.CreateInstance(t);
}

You could use Activator.CreateInstance(string, string) overload also, but this would not directly return a new instance of the Type required.