extending Convert.ChangeType to produce user-defined types on request

Question

Given the class:

public class Foo
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
}

Is it possible to have a Foo instance created from a string thro

Answer 1

Direct cast from string won't work as Dan Tao already pointed out. Could you maybe implement your own wrapper for the string and use that? Something like

class MyString: IConvertible {

  public string Value { get; set; }

  ...
  object IConvertible.ToType(Type conversionType, IFormatProvider provider) {
    if (conversionType == typeof(Foo))
      return new Foo { Name = Value };
    throw new InvalidCastException();
  }

}
...
MyString myString = new MyString{Value="one"};
Foo myFoo = (Foo)Convert.ChangeType(myString, typeof(Foo));

Don't know if it is a useful idea but anyway..