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

As Rudi Visser told, you should use reflection.

Also to get your class name you should not hardcode it. If you whant to use your name property just write

public abstract class MyObject
{
    public string name 
    { 
        get
        {
            return this.GetType().Name;
        }
    }
    public bool IsObject(string pattern);
    ...
}

if you don't have the name of class, just some string that represent it, than you could check all the classes derived from MyObject

public MyObject Create(string pattern)
{
    Type[] types = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetTypes();
    foreach (Type type in types.Where(t => t.IsSubclassOf(typeof(MyObject))))
    {
        MyObject obj = (MyObject)Activator.CreateInstance(type);
        if (obj.name == pattern)
        {
            return obj;
        }
    }
    throw new Exception("Type " + pattern + " not found.");
}