Declare a variable using a Type variable

Question

I have this code:

Type leftType = workItem[LeftFieldName].GetType(); 

I then want to declare a variable of that type:

leftType someVar; 

Is that possible?

Answer 1

You can do something like these and cast them to a known interface.

var someVar = Convert.ChangeType(someOriginalValue, workItem[LeftFieldName].GetType()); var someVar = Activator.CreateInstance(workItem[LeftFieldName].GetType()); 

If you replace var with dynamic (and you are using .Net 4), you can call the methods you expect on the someVar object. If they don't exist, you'll just get a MissingMethodException.

Answer 2

This is not possible.

Variable types are a compile-time concept; it would make no sense to declare a variable of a type which is not known until runtime.
You wouldn't be able to do anything with the variable, since you wouldn't know what type it is.

You're probably looking for the dynamic keyword.