Question

All, I have a method that returns a List. This method is used to return the parameters of SQL StoredProcedures, Views and Functions depending on name. What I want to do is create a list of objects and return this list to the caller. The method is below

private List<T> GetInputParameters<T>(string spFunViewName)
{
    string strSql = String.Format(
        "SELECT PARAMETER_NAME, DATA_TYPE FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PARAMETERS " +
        "WHERE SPECIFIC_NAME = '{0}' AND PARAMETER_MODE = 'IN';",
        spFunViewName);
    List<string[]> paramInfoList = new List<string[]>();
    DataTable paramDt = Utilities.DTFromDB(conn, "InputParmaters", strSql);
    if (paramDt != null)
    {
        Converter<DataRow, string[]> rowConverter =
            new Converter<DataRow, string[]>(Utilities.RowColConvert);
        paramInfoList = Utilities.ConvertRowsToList<string[]>(paramDt, rowConverter);
    }
    else
        return null;

    // Build the input parameter list.
    List<T> paramList = new List<T>();
    foreach (string[] paramInfo in paramInfoList)
    {
        T t = new T(paramInfo[NAME], paramInfo[TYPE], Convert.ToInt32(paramInfo[CHARMAXLEN]));
        columnList.Add(column);
    }
    return columnList;   
}

I clearly can’t instantiate T via new and pass to the constructor, but it should be clear what I am attempting to do. Is there a way to do what I want with out three additional methods?

Note. The main issue is that the number of parameters I am passing to T can either be two OR three.

Thanks for your time.

Edit: The structs I use are as follows

public struct Database
{
    public string name { get; set; }
    public string filename { get; set; }
    public List<Table> tables { get; set; }
    public List<StoredProcedure> sps { get; set; }
    public List<Function> funcs { get; set; }
    public List<View> views { get; set; }
    public Database(string name, string filename)
    {
        this.name = name;
        this.filename = filename;
    }
}

protected internal struct StoredProcedure
{
    public string name { get; set; }
    public List<string[]> parameters { get; set; }
    public StoredProcedure(string name, List<string[]> parameters)
    {
        this.name = name;
        this.parameters = parameters;
    }
}

protected internal struct Function
{
    public string name { get; set; }
    public string output { get; set; }
    public List<string[]> parameters { get; set; }
    public Function(string name, string output, List<string[]> parameters)
    {
        this.name = name;
        this.output = output;
        this.parameters = parameters;
    }
}

protected internal struct View
{
    public string name {get; set;} 
    public List<string[]> parameters { get; set; }
    public View(string name, List<string[]> parameters)
    {
        this.name = name;
        this.parameters = parameters;
    }
}

Answer 1

Use the Activator class to create T and pass the parameters.

Type type = typeof(T);
var result = (T)Activator.CreateInstance(type, new object[] { yourParameters });

Used in your code snippet:

T t = Activator.CreateInstance(type, colInfo[NAME], colInfo[TYPE], Convert.ToInt32(colInfo[CHARMAXLEN]));