Avoid giving namespace name in Type.GetType()

Question

Type.GetType("TheClass"); 

Returns null if the namespace is not present like:

Type.GetType("SomeNamespace.TheClass"); // returns a Type object  

Is there any way to avoid giving the namespace name?

Answer 1

I've used a helper method that searches all loaded Assemblys for a Type matching the specified name. Even though in my code only one Type result was expected it supports multiple. I verify that only one result is returned every time I used it and suggest you do the same.

/// <summary> /// Gets a all Type instances matching the specified class name with just non-namespace qualified class name. /// </summary> /// <param name="className">Name of the class sought.</param> /// <returns>Types that have the class name specified. They may not be in the same namespace.</returns> public static Type[] getTypeByName(string className) {     List<Type> returnVal = new List<Type>();      foreach (Assembly a in AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies())     {         Type[] assemblyTypes = a.GetTypes();         for (int j = 0; j < assemblyTypes.Length; j++)         {             if (assemblyTypes[j].Name == className)             {                 returnVal.Add(assemblyTypes[j]);             }         }     }      return returnVal.ToArray(); } 

Answer 2

There is no need to complicate things.

AppDomain.CurrentDomain     .GetAssemblies()     .SelectMany(x => x.GetTypes())     .FirstOrDefault(t => t.Name == "MyTypeName"); 

Use Where instead of FirstOrDefault to get all the results.