Programmatic equivalent of default(Type)

Question

I\'m using reflection to loop through a Type\'s properties and set certain types to their default. Now, I could do a switch on the type and set the defau

Answer 1

This should work: Nullable<T> a = new Nullable<T>().GetValueOrDefault();

Answer 2

Slight adjustments to @Rob Fonseca-Ensor's solution: The following extension method also works on .Net Standard since I use GetRuntimeMethod instead of GetMethod.

public static class TypeExtensions
{
    public static object GetDefault(this Type t)
    {
        var defaultValue = typeof(TypeExtensions)
            .GetRuntimeMethod(nameof(GetDefaultGeneric), new Type[] { })
            .MakeGenericMethod(t).Invoke(null, null);
        return defaultValue;
    }

    public static T GetDefaultGeneric<T>()
    {
        return default(T);
    }
}

...and the according unit test for those who care about quality:

[Fact]
public void GetDefaultTest()
{
    // Arrange
    var type = typeof(DateTime);

    // Act
    var defaultValue = type.GetDefault();

    // Assert
    defaultValue.Should().Be(default(DateTime));
}