Determine if a reflected type can be cast to another reflected type

Question

In .net (C#), If you have two types discovered through reflection is it possible to determine if one can be cast to the other? (implicit and/or explicit).

What I\'m tryi

Answer 1

public static bool HasConversionOperator( Type from, Type to )
        {
            Func<Expression, UnaryExpression> bodyFunction = body => Expression.Convert( body, to );
            ParameterExpression inp = Expression.Parameter( from, "inp" );
            try
            {
                // If this succeeds then we can cast 'from' type to 'to' type using implicit coercion
                Expression.Lambda( bodyFunction( inp ), inp ).Compile();
                return true;
            }
            catch( InvalidOperationException )
            {
                return false;
            }
        }

This should do the trick for implicit and explicit conversions (including numeric types, classes, etc.)

Answer 2

It would be better to look into TypeConverter's.

Answer 3

So, probably you mean duck typing or structural typing? There are several implementations that will dynamically generate the required proxies.

For example:

http://www.deftflux.net/blog/page/Duck-Typing-Project.aspx

Answer 4

Here's an implementation isn't pretty but which I believe covers all cases (implicit/explicit operators, nullable boxing/unboxing, primitive type conversions, standard casts). Note that there's a difference between saying that a conversion MIGHT succeed vs. that it WILL succeed (which is almost impossible to know for sure). For more details, a comprehensive unit test, and an implicit version, check out my post here.

public static bool IsCastableTo(this Type from, Type to)
{
    // from https://web.archive.org/web/20141017005721/http://www.codeducky.org/10-utilities-c-developers-should-know-part-one/ 
    Throw.IfNull(from, "from");
    Throw.IfNull(to, "to");

    // explicit conversion always works if to : from OR if 
    // there's an implicit conversion
    if (from.IsAssignableFrom(to) || from.IsImplicitlyCastableTo(to))
    {
        return true;
    }

    // for nullable types, we can simply strip off the nullability and evaluate the underyling types
    var underlyingFrom = Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(from);
    var underlyingTo = Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(to);
    if (underlyingFrom != null || underlyingTo != null)
    {
        return (underlyingFrom ?? from).IsCastableTo(underlyingTo ?? to);
    }

    if (from.IsValueType)
    {
        try
        {
            ReflectionHelpers.GetMethod(() => AttemptExplicitCast<object, object>())
                .GetGenericMethodDefinition()
                .MakeGenericMethod(from, to)
                .Invoke(null, new object[0]);
            return true;
        }
        catch (TargetInvocationException ex)
        {
            return !(
                ex.InnerException is RuntimeBinderException
                // if the code runs in an environment where this message is localized, we could attempt a known failure first and base the regex on it's message
                && Regex.IsMatch(ex.InnerException.Message, @"^Cannot convert type '.*' to '.*'$")
            );
        }
    }
    else
    {
        // if the from type is null, the dynamic logic above won't be of any help because 
        // either both types are nullable and thus a runtime cast of null => null will 
        // succeed OR we get a runtime failure related to the inability to cast null to 
        // the desired type, which may or may not indicate an actual issue. thus, we do 
        // the work manually
        return from.IsNonValueTypeExplicitlyCastableTo(to);
    }
}

private static bool IsNonValueTypeExplicitlyCastableTo(this Type from, Type to)
{
    if ((to.IsInterface && !from.IsSealed)
        || (from.IsInterface && !to.IsSealed))
    {
        // any non-sealed type can be cast to any interface since the runtime type MIGHT implement
        // that interface. The reverse is also true; we can cast to any non-sealed type from any interface
        // since the runtime type that implements the interface might be a derived type of to.
        return true;
    }

    // arrays are complex because of array covariance 
    // (see http://msmvps.com/blogs/jon_skeet/archive/2013/06/22/array-covariance-not-just-ugly-but-slow-too.aspx).
    // Thus, we have to allow for things like var x = (IEnumerable<string>)new object[0];
    // and var x = (object[])default(IEnumerable<string>);
    var arrayType = from.IsArray && !from.GetElementType().IsValueType ? from
        : to.IsArray && !to.GetElementType().IsValueType ? to
        : null;
    if (arrayType != null)
    {
        var genericInterfaceType = from.IsInterface && from.IsGenericType ? from
            : to.IsInterface && to.IsGenericType ? to
            : null;
        if (genericInterfaceType != null)
        {
            return arrayType.GetInterfaces()
                .Any(i => i.IsGenericType
                    && i.GetGenericTypeDefinition() == genericInterfaceType.GetGenericTypeDefinition()
                    && i.GetGenericArguments().Zip(to.GetGenericArguments(), (ia, ta) => ta.IsAssignableFrom(ia) || ia.IsAssignableFrom(ta)).All(b => b));
        }
    }

    // look for conversion operators. Even though we already checked for implicit conversions, we have to look
    // for operators of both types because, for example, if a class defines an implicit conversion to int then it can be explicitly
    // cast to uint
    const BindingFlags conversionFlags = BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.FlattenHierarchy;
    var conversionMethods = from.GetMethods(conversionFlags)
        .Concat(to.GetMethods(conversionFlags))
        .Where(m => (m.Name == "op_Explicit" || m.Name == "op_Implicit")
            && m.Attributes.HasFlag(MethodAttributes.SpecialName)
            && m.GetParameters().Length == 1 
            && (
                // the from argument of the conversion function can be an indirect match to from in
                // either direction. For example, if we have A : B and Foo defines a conversion from B => Foo,
                // then C# allows A to be cast to Foo
                m.GetParameters()[0].ParameterType.IsAssignableFrom(from)
                || from.IsAssignableFrom(m.GetParameters()[0].ParameterType)
            )
        );

    if (to.IsPrimitive && typeof(IConvertible).IsAssignableFrom(to))
    {
        // as mentioned above, primitive convertible types (i. e. not IntPtr) get special 
        // treatment in the sense that if you can convert from Foo => int, you can convert
        // from Foo => double as well
        return conversionMethods.Any(m => m.ReturnType.IsCastableTo(to));
    }

    return conversionMethods.Any(m => m.ReturnType == to);
}

private static void AttemptExplicitCast<TFrom, TTo>()
{
    // based on the IL generated from
    // var x = (TTo)(dynamic)default(TFrom);

    var binder = Microsoft.CSharp.RuntimeBinder.Binder.Convert(CSharpBinderFlags.ConvertExplicit, typeof(TTo), typeof(TypeHelpers));
    var callSite = CallSite<Func<CallSite, TFrom, TTo>>.Create(binder);
    callSite.Target(callSite, default(TFrom));
}

Answer 5

To directly answer your question ...

If you have two types discovered through reflection is it possible to determine if one can be cast to the other? (implicit and/or explicit)

... you can use something similar to this :

to.GetType().IsAssignableFrom(from.GetType());

The Type.IsAssignableFrom() method can be used for exactly your purpose. This would also be considerably less verbose (even if only marginally more performant) than using TypeConverters.