dynamic return type of a function

Question

How can I create a function that will have a dynamic return type based on the parameter type?

Like

protected DynamicType Test(DynamicType type)
{

retur         


        

Answer 1

Whilst the accepted answer is good, it has been over two years since it was written, so, I should add that you can use:

protected dynamic methodname(dynamic input)
{
    return input;
}

Input will be returned as the same type, and you do not need to call the method as a generic.

Reference:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd264736.aspx

Answer 2

C# is not a dynamic language. To tackle this problem in C# you can return a generic object and typecast later to whatever you think the value should be -- not recommended. You can also return an interface, this way you don't really care about a specific class instance. As others have pointed out you can also use generics. It really depends on what you need / want to do inside the body of the function since all the methods above have their own limitations.

Answer 3

You'd have to use generics for this. For example,

protected T Test<T>(T parameter)
{

}

In this example, the '<T>' tells the compiler that it represents the name of a type, but you don't know what that is in the context of creating this function. So you'd end up calling it like...

int foo;

int bar = Test<int>(foo);

Answer 4

Actually, assuming that you have a known set of parameters and return types, it could be handled with simple overloading:

protected int Test(string p) {   ...  }
protected string Test(DateTime p ) { .... }

Answer 5

Then you need use generics.

protected T Test(T type) {

return type;

}