cast object with a Type variable

Question

The following doesn't work, of course. Is there a possible way, which is pretty similar like this?

Type newObjectType = typeof(MyClass);  var newObject = givenObject as newObjectType; 

Answer 1

newObjectType is an instance of the Type class (containing metadata about the type) not the type itself.

This should work

var newObject = givenObject as MyClass; 

OR

var newObject = (MyClass) givenObject; 

Casting to an instance of a type really does not make sense since compile time has to know what the variable type should be while instance of a type is a runtime concept.

The only way var can work is that the type of the variable is known at compile-time.

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UPDATE

Casting generally is a compile-time concept, i.e. you have to know the type at compile-time.

Type Conversion is a runtime concept.

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UPDATE 2

If you need to make a call using a variable of the type and you do not know the type at compile time, you can use reflection: use Invoke method of the MethodInfo on the type instance.

object myString = "Ali"; Type type = myString.GetType(); MethodInfo methodInfo = type.GetMethods().Where(m=>m.Name == "ToUpper").First(); object invoked = methodInfo.Invoke(myString, null); Console.WriteLine(invoked); Console.ReadLine(); 

Answer 2

You can check if the type is present with IsAssignableFrom

if(givenObject.GetType().IsAssignableFrom(newObjectType)) 

But you can't use var here because type isn't known at compile time.