Generic Class & Type.GetType()

Question

Bit of a puzzler, I have a generic class

public abstract class MyClass<T> : UserControl
{

}

and I have got a type like this

Type type = Type.GetType("Type From DB as String", true, true);

and I want to create and instance of MyClass using the type... But this doesn't work.

MyClass<type> control = (MyClass<type>)LoadControl("/UsercControl.ascx");

Any ideas????

Answer 1

Something like this:

Type typeArgument = Type.GetType("Type From DB as String", true, true);
Type template = typeof(MyClass<>);
Type genericType = template.MakeGenericType(typeArgument);
object instance = Activator.CreateInstance(genericType);

Now you won't be able to use that as a MyClass<T> in terms of calling methods on it, because you don't know the T... but you could define a non-generic base class or interface with some methods in which don't require T, and cast to that. Or you could call the methods on it via reflection.