Calling a generic method with a dynamic type [duplicate]

Question

Lets say I have the following classes

public class Animal { .... }  public class Duck : Animal { ... }  public class Cow : Animal { ... }  public class Creator {    public List<T> CreateAnimals<T>(int numAnimals)    {       Type type = typeof(T);       List<T> returnList = new List<T>();       //Use reflection to populate list and return    } } 

Now in some code later I want to read in what animal to create.

Creator creator = new Creator(); string animalType = //read from a file what animal (duck, cow) to create Type type = Type.GetType(animalType); List<animalType> animals = creator.CreateAnimals<type>(5); 

Now the problem is the last line isn't valid. Is there some elegant way to do this then?

Answer 1

I don't know about elegant, but the way to do it is:

typeof(Creator)     .GetMethod("CreateAnimals")     .MakeGenericMethod(type)     .Invoke(creator, new object[] { 5 });