Question

C# won’t let me cast a type T to a type I can prove T to be. How can I cast T to that type?

public static T _cast<T> (object o) {
    if (typeof(T) == typeof(string)) {
        return (T) o.ToString(); // Compiler YELLS!
    }
    throw new InvalidCastException("missing compiler generated case");
}

I’m writing a program that generates code from C++ to C#. This _cast operation I want to use in place of C++’s operator T ().

Answer 1

Normally I don’t answer my own questions, but I just came up with the solution: downcast to object before casting to T

public static T _cast<T> (object o) {
    if (typeof(T) == typeof(string)) {
        return (T)(object) o.ToString();
    }
    throw new InvalidCastException("missing compiler generated case");

}