Generating a list of child classes with reflection in .NET 3.5

Question

At runtime, I would like to specify a parent class, and then the program would generate a list of all children classes (of however many generations). For example, if I had Entity as a parent, and Item:Entity and Actor:Entity, there would be two strings, "Actor" and "Item".

I see that System.Reflection.TypeInfo is exactly what I am looking for. However, it appears this is exclusive to .NET 4.5, and my environment is unfortunately stuck at 3.5.

Is there an alternative way to do this in .NET 3.5, or should I consider an upgrade?

Answer 1

var pType = typeof(Entity);
IEnumerable<string> children = Enumerable.Range(1, iterations)
   .SelectMany(i => Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetTypes()
                    .Where(t => t.IsClass && t != pType
                            && pType.IsAssignableFrom(t))
                    .Select(t => t.Name));

Demo