Trying to use Reflection to Invoke Method within same class

Question

I have a WCF service that accepts an object as a parameter that has a URI and Method Name. What I am trying to do is have a method that will look @ the URI, if it contains the words "localhost" it will use reflection and call a method, of the name that is passed in as a parameter, within the the same class, return a value and continue on.

public class Test
{
     public GetStatResponse GetStat(GetStatRequest request)
     {

        GetStatResponse returnValue = new GetStatResponse();

         if(Helpers.Contains(request.ServiceURI,"localhost", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
         {
             MethodInfo mi = this.GetType().GetMethod(request.ServiceMethod /*, BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.IgnoreCase*/);
             returnValue = (GetStatResponse)mi.Invoke(this,null);
         }

The above is the code segment pertaining to this question. I pull the MethodInfo no problem but I am running into issues on the mi.Invoke. The exception that I receive is "Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation." With an Inner Exception "Object reference not set to an instance of an object". I have tried changing the code to (GetStatResponse)mi.Invoke(new Test(), null), with no luck. Test being the class.

I'm open to other suggestions as to how to resolve this, I just thought reflection might be the easiest.

The Method that I am calling with my testing is defined as

public GetStatResponse TestMethod() 
{
         GetStatResponse returnValue = new GetStatResponse(); 
         Stat stat = new Stat();
         Stat.Label = "This is my label";
         Stat.ToolTip = "This is my tooltip";
         Stat.Value = "this is my value"; 

         returnValue.Stat = stat;
         return returnValue;
}

Answer 1

Before calling the method you might want to make sure that the MethodInfo you are pulling through reflection is not null:

MethodInfo mi = this.GetType().GetMethod(
    request.ServiceMethod, 
    BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.IgnoreCase
);

// Make sure that the method exists before trying to call it
if (mi != null)
{
    returnValue = (GetStatResponse)mi.Invoke(this, null);
}

---

After your update it seems that the exception is thrown inside the method you are calling:

GetStatResponse returnValue = new GetStatResponse(); 
// Don't forget to initialize returnValue.Stat before using it:
returnValue.Stat = new WhateverTheTypeIs();
returnValue.Stat.Label = "This is my label";

Answer 2

Because you are not specifying BindingFlags in your GetMethod() call, you are only going to be returned methods matching the name containing request.ServiceMethod that are PUBLIC.

Check whether the method you are trying to invoke is public, otherwise MethodInfo will return null.

If it is not public, either make the method public or include the BindingFlags.NonPublic flag.

Also, you should always make sure that mi != null before calling mi.Invoke