How to cast Object to its actual type?

Question

If I have:

void MyMethod(Object obj) {   ...   }

How can I cast obj to what its actual type is?

Answer 1

If you know the actual type, then just:

SomeType typed = (SomeType)obj;
typed.MyFunction();

If you don't know the actual type, then: not really, no. You would have to instead use one of:

• reflection
• implementing a well-known interface
• dynamic

For example:

// reflection
obj.GetType().GetMethod("MyFunction").Invoke(obj, null);

// interface
IFoo foo = (IFoo)obj; // where SomeType : IFoo and IFoo declares MyFunction
foo.MyFunction();

// dynamic
dynamic d = obj;
d.MyFunction();

Answer 2

Cast it to its real type if you now the type for example it is oriented from class named abc. You can call your function in this way :

(abc)(obj)).MyFunction();

if you don't know the function it can be done in a different way. Not easy always. But you can find it in some way by it's signature. If this is your case, you should let us know.

Answer 3

In my case AutoMapper works well.

AutoMapper can map to/from dynamic objects without any explicit configuration:

public class Foo {
    public int Bar { get; set; }
    public int Baz { get; set; }
}
dynamic foo = new MyDynamicObject();
foo.Bar = 5;
foo.Baz = 6;

Mapper.Initialize(cfg => {});

var result = Mapper.Map<Foo>(foo);
result.Bar.ShouldEqual(5);
result.Baz.ShouldEqual(6);

dynamic foo2 = Mapper.Map<MyDynamicObject>(result);
foo2.Bar.ShouldEqual(5);
foo2.Baz.ShouldEqual(6);

Similarly you can map straight from dictionaries to objects, AutoMapper will line up the keys with property names.

more info https://github.com/AutoMapper/AutoMapper/wiki/Dynamic-and-ExpandoObject-Mapping

Answer 4

Implement an interface to call your function in your method
interface IMyInterface
{
 void MyinterfaceMethod();
}

IMyInterface MyObj = obj as IMyInterface;
if ( MyObj != null)
{
MyMethod(IMyInterface MyObj );
}