Convert WMI CimType to System.Type

Question

I am trying to write a generic extension to turn a ManagementObjectCollection into a DataTable. This is just to make things easier for a startup script/program I am writing. I have ran into a problem with CimType. I have included the code I have written so far below.

    public static DataTable GetData(this ManagementObjectCollection objectCollection)
    {
        DataTable table = new DataTable();

        foreach (ManagementObject obj in objectCollection)
        {
            if (table.Columns.Count == 0)
            {
                foreach (PropertyData property in obj.Properties)
                {
                    table.Columns.Add(property.Name, property.Type);
                }
            }

            DataRow row = table.NewRow();

            foreach (PropertyData property in obj.Properties)
            {
                row[property.Name] = property.Value;
            }

            table.Rows.Add(row);
        }

        return table;
    }
}

I have found the a method which I think will work at http://www.devcow.com/blogs/adnrg/archive/2005/09/23/108.aspx. However it seems to me like there may be a better way, or even a .net function I am overlooking.

I guess I didn't make it clear. The problem I am having is that I need to convert from System.Management.CimType to System.Type. I almost thought this would be a common problem, but I suppose I'm trying to solve it in a general way.

Answer 1

Here is the function that I eventually used, it is a modified form of the one I posted in the link. It is odd, that there is no system function to do this.

    /**
    * <summary>
    *   This function converts a WMI CimType to a System.Type
    *   It was copied from: http://www.devcow.com/blogs/adnrg/archive/2005/09/23/108.aspx
    * </summary>
    */
    private static System.Type ConvertCimType(PropertyData property)
    {
        System.Type tReturnVal = null;

        switch (property.Type )
        {
            case CimType.Boolean:
                tReturnVal = typeof(System.Boolean);
                break;

            case CimType.Char16:
                tReturnVal = typeof(System.String);
                break;

            case CimType.DateTime:
                tReturnVal = typeof(System.DateTime);
                break;

            case CimType.Object:
                tReturnVal = typeof(System.Object);
                break;

            case CimType.Real32:
                tReturnVal = typeof(System.Decimal);
                break;

            case CimType.Real64:
                tReturnVal = typeof(System.Decimal);
                break;

            case CimType.Reference:
                tReturnVal = typeof(System.Object);
                break;

            case CimType.SInt16:
                tReturnVal = typeof(System.Int16);
                break;

            case CimType.SInt32:
                tReturnVal = typeof(System.Int32);
                break;

            case CimType.SInt8:
                tReturnVal = typeof(System.SByte);
                break;

            case CimType.String:
                tReturnVal = typeof(System.String);
                break;

            case CimType.UInt16:
                tReturnVal = typeof(System.UInt16);
                break;

            case CimType.UInt32:
                tReturnVal = typeof(System.UInt32);
                break;

            case CimType.UInt64:
                tReturnVal = typeof(System.UInt64);
                break;

            case CimType.UInt8:
                tReturnVal = typeof(System.Byte);
                break;
        }

        // do a final check
        tReturnVal = CheckType(property, tReturnVal);

        return tReturnVal;
    }


    private static System.Type CheckType(PropertyData property, System.Type itemType)
    {
        if (property.IsArray)
        {
            return System.Type.GetType( itemType.ToString() + "[]" );

        }
        else
        {
            return itemType;
        }
    }

Answer 2

Hi You can also try the following code:

public static class CimConvert { private readonly static IDictionary Cim2TypeTable = new Dictionary { {CimType.Boolean, typeof (bool)}, {CimType.Char16, typeof (string)}, {CimType.DateTime, typeof (DateTime)}, {CimType.Object, typeof (object)}, {CimType.Real32, typeof (decimal)}, {CimType.Real64, typeof (decimal)}, {CimType.Reference, typeof (object)}, {CimType.SInt16, typeof (short)}, {CimType.SInt32, typeof (int)}, {CimType.SInt8, typeof (sbyte)}, {CimType.String, typeof (string)}, {CimType.UInt8, typeof (byte)}, {CimType.UInt16, typeof (ushort)}, {CimType.UInt32, typeof (uint)}, {CimType.UInt64, typeof (ulong)} };

public static Type Cim2SystemType(this PropertyData data)
{
    Type type = Cim2TypeTable[data.Type];
    if (data.IsArray)
        type = type.MakeArrayType();
    return type;
}

public static object Cim2SystemValue(this PropertyData data)
{
    Type type = Cim2SystemType(data);
    if (data.Type == CimType.DateTime)
        return DateTime.ParseExact(data.Value.ToString(), "yyyyMMddHHmmss.ffffff-000", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
    return Convert.ChangeType(data.Value, type);
}

}