c# - Create an instance of a Type, provided as a parameter to a method

Question

The class to instantiate:

public class InstantiateMe
{
    public String foo
    {
        get;
        set;
    }
}

Some pseudo-code:

public void CreateInstanceOf(Type t)
{
    var instance = new t();

    instance.foo = "bar";
}

So far I'm figuring that I need to use reflection to get this done, given the dynamic nature of what I want to achieve.

Here's my success criteria's:

• Create an instance of any type
• Create instances of types without having to invoke their constructor
• Access all public properties

I would greatly appreciate some working example-code. I'm not new to C#, but I've never worked with reflection before.

Answer 1

Try the following to actually create the instance.

Object t = Activator.CreateInstance(t);

It is not possible however, without generics and constraints to statically access the members as shown in your example.

You could do it with the following though

public void CreateInstanceOf<T>() where T : InstantiateMe, new()
{
    T i = new T();
    i.foo = "bar";
}