Reflection - set object property considering data type

Question

I already found out that it is possible to set the value of a property using reflection: Set object property using reflection

But my problem is that my data exists only as string. Therefore of course I always get an exception because it is not the right type.

Is there a way of automatically trying to parse the string to the according type (DateTime, int, decimal, float)?

Below is the code I'm using:

Type myType = obj.GetType();
PropertyInfo[] props = myType.GetProperties();

foreach (PropertyInfo prop in props)
{
   setProperty(obj, prop, data[prop.Name]);
}

data is a simple associative array that contains the data as string. These data are supposed to be mapped into obj.

Answer 1

You can use the Convert class:

   var value = Convert.ChangeType(data[prop.Name], prop.PropertyType);
   setProperty(obj, prop, value);

Answer 2

You should be able to use the TypeConverter:

var converter = TypeDescriptor.GetConverter(prop.PropertyType);
var value = converter.ConvertFromString(data[prop.Name]);
setProperty(obj,prop,value);