C# generic string parse to any object

Question

I am storing object values in strings e.g.,

string[] values = new string[] { \"213.4\", \"10\", \"hello\", \"MyValue\"};

is there any way to ge

Answer 1

Perhaps the first thing to try is:

object value = Convert.ChangeType(text, info.PropertyType);

However, this doesn't support extensibility via custom types; if you need that, how about:

TypeConverter tc = TypeDescriptor.GetConverter(info.PropertyType);
object value = tc.ConvertFromString(null, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, text);
info.SetValue(obj, value, null);

Or:

info.SetValue(obj, AwesomeFunction("20.53", info.PropertyType), null);

with

public object AwesomeFunction(string text, Type type) {
    TypeConverter tc = TypeDescriptor.GetConverter(type);
    return tc.ConvertFromString(null, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, text);
}