What's the best way to call a generic method when the type parameter isn't known at compile time, but instead is obtained dynamically at runtime?
Consider the following sample code - inside the Example()
method, what's the most concise way to invoke GenericMethod<T>()
using the Type
stored in the myType
variable?
public class Sample
{
public void Example(string typeName)
{
Type myType = FindType(typeName);
// What goes here to call GenericMethod<T>()?
GenericMethod<myType>(); // This doesn't work
// What changes to call StaticMethod<T>()?
Sample.StaticMethod<myType>(); // This also doesn't work
}
public void GenericMethod<T>()
{
// ...
}
public static void StaticMethod<T>()
{
//...
}
}
You need to use reflection to get the method to start with, then "construct" it by supplying type arguments with MakeGenericMethod:
MethodInfo method = typeof(Sample).GetMethod(nameof(Sample.GenericMethod));
MethodInfo generic = method.MakeGenericMethod(myType);
generic.Invoke(this, null);
For a static method, pass null
as the first argument to Invoke
. That's nothing to do with generic methods - it's just normal reflection.
As noted, a lot of this is simpler as of C# 4 using dynamic
- if you can use type inference, of course. It doesn't help in cases where type inference isn't available, such as the exact example in the question.