Cast Object to Generic List

Question

I have 3 generict type list.

List = new List();
List
 = new List
();
List = new Lis         


        

Answer 1

What a sticky problem. Try this:

List<Contact> c = null;
List<Address> a = null;
List<Document> d = null;

object o = GetObject();

c = o as List<Contact>;
a = o as List<Address>;
d = o as List<Document>;

Between c, a, and d, there's 2 nulls and 1 non-null, or 3 nulls.

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Take 2:

object o = GetObject();
IEnumerable e = o as IEnumerable;
IEnumerable<Contact> c = e.OfType<Contact>();
IEnumerable<Address> a = e.OfType<Address>();
IEnumerable<Document> d = e.OfType<Document>();

Answer 2

No, you can't cast without going around corners (this is: reflection), generic type parameters have to be known at compile time. You can of course do something like this:

content.Where(o => o is type).ToList().Foreach(stuff);