Cast to generic type in C#

Question

I have a Dictionary to map a certain type to a certain generic object for that type. For example:

typeof(LoginMessage) maps to MessageProcessor<LoginMessage>

Now the problem is to retrieve this generic object at runtime from the Dictionary. Or to be more specific: To cast the retrieved object to the specific generic type.

I need it to work something like this:

Type key = message.GetType();
MessageProcessor<key> processor = messageProcessors[key] as MessageProcessor<key>;

Hope there is a easy solution to this.

Edit: I do not want to use Ifs and switches. Due to performance issues I cannot use reflection of some sort either.

Answer 1

You can't do that. You could try telling your problem from a more high level point of view (i.e. what exactly do you want to accomplish with the casted variable) for a different solution.

You could go with something like this:

 public abstract class Message { 
     // ...
 }
 public class Message<T> : Message {
 }

 public abstract class MessageProcessor {
     public abstract void ProcessMessage(Message msg);
 }
 public class SayMessageProcessor : MessageProcessor {
     public override void ProcessMessage(Message msg) {
         ProcessMessage((Message<Say>)msg);
     }
     public void ProcessMessage(Message<Say> msg) {
         // do the actual processing
     }
 }

 // Dispatcher logic:
 Dictionary<Type, MessageProcessor> messageProcessors = {
    { typeof(Say), new SayMessageProcessor() },
    { typeof(string), new StringMessageProcessor() }
 }; // properly initialized

 messageProcessors[msg.GetType().GetGenericArguments()[0]].ProcessMessage(msg);

Answer 2

Type type = typeof(MessageProcessor<>).MakeGenericType(key);

That's the best you can do, however without actually knowing what type it is, there's really not much more you can do with it.

EDIT: I should clarify. I changed from var type to Type type. My point is, now you can do something like this:

object obj = Activator.CreateInstance(type);

obj will now be the correct type, but since you don't know what type "key" is at compile time, there's no way to cast it and do anything useful with it.

Answer 3

As mentioned, you cannot cast it directly. One possible solution is to have those generic types inherit from a non-generic interface, in which case you can still invoke methods on it without reflection. Using reflection, you can pass the mapped object to any method expecting it, then the cast will be performed for you. So if you have a method called Accept expecting a MessageProcessor as a parameter, then you can find it and invoke it dynamically.

Answer 4

This is simply not allowed:

Type key = message.GetType();
MessageProcessor<key> processor = messageProcessors[key] as MessageProcessor<key>;

You cannot get a generic type as a variable value.

You'd have to do a switch or something:

Type key = message.GetType();
if (key == typeof(Foo))
{
    MessageProcessor<Foo> processor = (MessageProcessor<Foo>)messageProcessors[key];
    // Do stuff with processor
}
else if (key == typeof(Bar))
{
    MessageProcessor<bar> processor = (MessageProcessor<Bar>)messageProcessors[key];
    // Do stuff with processor
}
...

Answer 5

Does this work for you?

interface IMessage
{
    void Process(object source);
}

class LoginMessage : IMessage
{
    public void Process(object source)
    {
    }
}

abstract class MessageProcessor
{
    public abstract void ProcessMessage(object source, object type);
}

class MessageProcessor<T> : MessageProcessor where T: IMessage
{
    public override void ProcessMessage(object source, object o) 
    {
        if (!(o is T)) {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }
        ProcessMessage(source, (T)o);
    }

    public void ProcessMessage(object source, T type)
    {
        type.Process(source);
    }
}


class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Dictionary<Type, MessageProcessor> messageProcessors = new Dictionary<Type, MessageProcessor>();
        messageProcessors.Add(typeof(string), new MessageProcessor<LoginMessage>());
        LoginMessage message = new LoginMessage();
        Type key = message.GetType();
        MessageProcessor processor = messageProcessors[key];
        object source = null;
        processor.ProcessMessage(source, message);
    }
}

This gives you the correct object. The only thing I am not sure about is whether it is enough in your case to have it as an abstract MessageProcessor.

Edit: I added an IMessage interface. The actual processing code should now become part of the different message classes that should all implement this interface.

Answer 6

You can write a method that takes the type as a generic parameter:

void GenericProcessMessage<T>(T message)
{
    MessageProcessor<T> processor = messageProcessors[typeof(T)]
        as MessageProcessor<T>;

    //  Call method processor or whatever you need to do
}

Then you need a way to call the method with the correct generic argument. You can do this with reflection:

public void ProcessMessage(object message)
{
    Type messageType = message.GetType();
    MethodInfo method = this.GetType().GetMethod("GenericProcessMessage");
    MethodInfo closedMethod = method.MakeGenericMethod(messageType);
    closedMethod.Invoke(this, new object[] {message});
}

Answer 7

Please see if following solution works for you. The trick is to define a base processor interface which takes a base type of message.

interface IMessage
{
}

class LoginMessage : IMessage
{
}

class LogoutMessage : IMessage
{
}

class UnknownMessage : IMessage
{
}

interface IMessageProcessor
{
    void PrcessMessageBase(IMessage msg);
}

abstract class MessageProcessor<T> : IMessageProcessor where T : IMessage
{
    public void PrcessMessageBase(IMessage msg)
    {
        ProcessMessage((T)msg);
    }

    public abstract void ProcessMessage(T msg);

}

class LoginMessageProcessor : MessageProcessor<LoginMessage>
{
    public override void ProcessMessage(LoginMessage msg)
    {
        System.Console.WriteLine("Handled by LoginMsgProcessor");
    }
}

class LogoutMessageProcessor : MessageProcessor<LogoutMessage>
{
    public override void ProcessMessage(LogoutMessage msg)
    {
        System.Console.WriteLine("Handled by LogoutMsgProcessor");
    }
}

class MessageProcessorTest
{
    /// <summary>
    /// IMessage Type and the IMessageProcessor which would process that type.
    /// It can be further optimized by keeping IMessage type hashcode
    /// </summary>
    private Dictionary<Type, IMessageProcessor> msgProcessors = 
                                new Dictionary<Type, IMessageProcessor>();
    bool processorsLoaded = false;

    public void EnsureProcessorsLoaded()
    {
        if(!processorsLoaded)
        {
            var processors =
                from processorType in Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetTypes()
                where processorType.IsClass && !processorType.IsAbstract &&
                      processorType.GetInterface(typeof(IMessageProcessor).Name) != null
                select Activator.CreateInstance(processorType);

            foreach (IMessageProcessor msgProcessor in processors)
            {
                MethodInfo processMethod = msgProcessor.GetType().GetMethod("ProcessMessage");
                msgProcessors.Add(processMethod.GetParameters()[0].ParameterType, msgProcessor);
            }

            processorsLoaded = true;
        }
    }

    public void ProcessMessages()
    {
        List<IMessage> msgList = new List<IMessage>();
        msgList.Add(new LoginMessage());
        msgList.Add(new LogoutMessage());
        msgList.Add(new UnknownMessage());

        foreach (IMessage msg in msgList)
        {
            ProcessMessage(msg);
        }
    }

    public void ProcessMessage(IMessage msg)
    {
        EnsureProcessorsLoaded();
        IMessageProcessor msgProcessor = null;
        if(msgProcessors.TryGetValue(msg.GetType(), out msgProcessor))
        {
            msgProcessor.PrcessMessageBase(msg);
        }
        else
        {
            System.Console.WriteLine("Processor not found");
        }
    }

    public static void Test()
    {
        new MessageProcessorTest().ProcessMessages();
    }
}

Answer 8

I had a similar problem. I have a class;

Action<T>

which has a property of type T.

How do I get the property when I don't know T? I can't cast to Action<> unless I know T.

SOLUTION:

Implement a non-generic interface;

public interface IGetGenericTypeInstance
{
    object GenericTypeInstance();
}

Now I can cast the object to IGetGenericTypeInstance and GenericTypeInstance will return the property as type object.