How to get the items count from an IList<> got as an object?

Question

In a method, I get an object.

In some situation, this object can be an IList of "something" (I have no control over this "something").

I am trying to:

1. Identify that this object is an IList (of something)
2. Cast the object into an "IList<something>" to be able to get the Count from it.

For now, I am stuck and looking for ideas.

Answer 1

You can check if your object implements IList using is.

Then you can cast your object to IList to get the count.

object myObject = new List<string>();

// check if myObject implements IList
if (myObject  is IList)
{
   int listCount = ((IList)myObject).Count;
}