C# object to array

Question

Using reflection I have an object which I need to cast into an iterable list of items (type unknown, will be object). Using the Watch window I can see my object is an array of some type as it tells me the number of elements and I can explode the tree view to see the elements themselves.

Firstly, I need to check that the object passed is some kind of array (might be List, might be object[], etc). Then I need to iterate through that array. However, I can't do the type conversion.

Here's how I'm using it (abbreviated):

    private static void Example(object instance, PropertyInfo propInfo)     {         object anArray = propInfo.GetValue(instance, null);         ArrayList myList = anArray as ArrayList;         foreach (object element in myList)         {             // etc         }     } 

I've tried various different casts. The above doesn't raise an exception but mylist is null when anArray actually exists and contains items. The actual instance being saved is a strongly-typed List<> but could take a limited subset of forms if necessary. But the point of the exercise is that this Example() method doesn't know the basic type of the property.

Answer 1

Casting it to an ArrayList is only going to work if the object actually is an ArrayList. It wont work with a System.Array, or a System.Collections.Generic.List`1 for example.

I think what you actually should do is cast it to IEnumerable, since that is your only requirement to loop over it...

object anArray = propInfo.GetValue(instance, null); IEnumerable enumerable = anArray as IEnumerable; if (enumerable != null) {     foreach(object element in enumerable)     {         // etc...     } }