Detecting a Nullable Type via reflection

Question

Surprisingly the following code fails the Assert:

int? wtf = 0;
Assert.IsType<Nullable<int>>(wtf);

So just out curiosity, how can you determine if a given instance is a Nullable<> object or not?

Answer 1

Well firstly, Nullable<T> is a struct, so there isn't an object as such. You can't call GetType(), as that will box the value (at which point you either get null and thus an exception, or a boxed non-nullable value and therefore not the type you want).

(Boxing is what's messing up your assertion here - I would assume that IsType accepts object.)

You can use type inference though to get the type of the variable as a type parameter:

public bool IsNullable<T>(T value)
{
    return Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(typeof(T)) != null;
}

That's not a huge amount of use when you know the exact type at compile-time as in your example, but it's useful for generics. (There are alternative ways of implementing it, of course.)

What's your real life situation? I assume it's not an assertion like this, given that you know the answer to this one at compile time.

Answer 2

I like the @jon-skeet answer but it only works if you know the type you are testing against. In our world we are using reflection to open up objects and test values against regex expressions.

simplifying the extension to work for any type worked better for us.

public static bool IsNullable(this Type type)
{
    return Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(type) != null;
}

generics are life's blood but sometimes... :)

Answer 3

int? i = 0;
var type = TypedReference.GetTargetType(__makeref(i));
var isNullable = type.IsGenericType &&
    type.GetGenericTypeDefinition() == typeof(Nullable<>);