using type returned by Type.GetType() in c#

Question

Hello ! i've got a question about how is it possible (if possible :) to use a type reference returned by Type.GetType() to, for example, create IList of that type?

here's sample code :

Type customer = Type.GetType("myapp.Customer");
IList<customer> customerList = new List<customer>(); // got an error here =[

Thank You in Advance !

Answer 1

Something like this:

Type listType = typeof(List<>).MakeGenericType(customer);
IList customerList = (IList)Activator.CreateInstance(listType);

Of course you can't declare it as

IList<customer>

because it is not defined at compile time. But List<T> implements IList, so you can use this.

Answer 2

The solution to your problem is provided by Stefan already.

The reason that you can not do IList<customer> is because you can not mix compile time and run-time types this way. A hint when I try to reason about something like this is: how can intellisense figure out what members it must show. In your example this can only be resolved at runtime.

The answer given by Stefan, can be used. However I think it does not help in your underlying problem, because it does not give you intellisense. So I think you have no advantage over using just a non-generic list.