Can I dynamically create a list of variable type? [duplicate]

Question

I have 4 public classes, with a bunch of properties each: MoveUpdateEntry, FullServiceEntry, SeamlessAcceptanceEntry, and UndocumentedEntry.

I have a dictionary containing excerpts of a given filename, along with a correlation in place to determine the string equivalent of the class's name I need to instantiate:

private static Dictionary<string, string> dEntryCorr = new Dictionary<string, string>()
{
    {"MU_MU", "MoveUpdateEntry" },
    {"FS_BQ", "FullServiceEntry" },
    {"FS_BF", "FullServiceEntry" },
    {"SE_NS", "SeamlessAcceptanceEntry" },
    {"SE_U_", "UndocumentedEntry" }
};

I've tried using Reflections as stated here, but simply trying to run the following gives me an error:

string fileToProcess = "MU_MU.json";
Type entryType = Type.GetType( dEntryCorr[ fileToProcess.Substring(0,5) ], true );

System.TypeLoadException: 'Could not load type 'MoveUpdateEntry' from assembly 'DataLoaderJSON, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'.'

My end goal here is to be able to dynamically pick a type to make a List<> of, based on the filename. (e.g. MU_MU.json will create List<MoveUpdateEntry>, FS_BQ.json creates List<FullServiceEntry>, etc.)

Is this possible in C#?

TLDR: I want to create a List<> with a class type that is determined by a string. This is a matter of abstraction.

Are you asking how to create create an instance of a generic type at run time or are you asking how to load dlls? They are different questions. — Aluan Haddad
– Aluan Haddad, Commented Aug 7, 2020 at 0:22
@AluanHaddad I'm asking how I create a list of a custom class by its string name, or at the very least instantiate an instance of that very class — sirius_pain
– sirius_pain, Commented Aug 7, 2020 at 0:25
string typeName = "Namespace." + dEntryCorr[fileToProcess.Substring(0, 5)] + ", Assembly";. See this answer. — 41686d6564
– 41686d6564, Commented Aug 7, 2020 at 0:25
Just when serializing, use typeof(MoveUpdateEntry).AssemblyQualifiedName — zaitsman
– zaitsman, Commented Aug 7, 2020 at 0:29
While it is possible to instantiate a type-specific List<T> and assign it to a dynamic or object variable, I'm not sure that will help you meet your goals-- at compile time, your code will have no idea what type the list is so you won't be able to do anything useful with it. You may as well just use a List<object> or a List<dynamic>. — John Wu
– John Wu, Commented Aug 7, 2020 at 0:55

Andrew Arthur · Accepted Answer · 2020-08-07 01:14:24Z

1

One way to get a Type from a string:

        string fileToProcess = "MU_MU.json";
        var entryType = AppDomain.CurrentDomain
            .GetAssemblies()
            .SelectMany(x => x.GetTypes())
            .FirstOrDefault(t => t.Name == dEntryCorr[fileToProcess.Substring(0, 5)]);

(If there are more than one Type with the name entryType will only contain one of them.)

edited Aug 7, 2020 at 1:14

answered Aug 7, 2020 at 1:04

Andrew Arthur

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