Creating generic variables from a type - How? Or use Activator.CreateInstance() with properties { } instead of parameters ( )?

Question

I\'m currently using Generics to make some dynamic methods, like creating an object and filling the properties with values.

Is there any way to \"dynamically\" creat

Answer 1

You can use MakeGenericType:

Type openListType = typeof(List<>);
Type genericListType = openListType.MakeGenericType(obj.GetType());
object instance = Activator.CreateInstance(genericListType);

Answer 2

When you use the object initializer, it's just using a default constructor (no parameters), then setting the individual properties after the object is constructed.

The code above is close - but var won't work here, since it's just a compile-time type inferrence. Since you're already using reflection, you can just use System.Object:

object propertyValue = values[p.Name];

The SetValue call will work fine with System.Object.

Answer 3

You can use the MakeGenericType method to get the generic type for a particular type argument:

var myObjListType = typeof(List<>).MakeGenericType(myObject.GetType());
var myObj = Activator.CreateInstance(myObjListType);
// MyObj will be an Object variable whose instance is a List<type of myObject>