Question

Here is a simplified version of what I’m trying to do:

Without having multiple if..else clauses and switch blocks, can I mimic the behavior of Javascript’s eval() shudder to instantiate a class in C#?

// Determine report orientation -- Portrait or Landscape
// There are 2 differently styled reports (beyond paper orientation)

string reportType = "Portrait";
GenericReport report;
report = new eval(reportType + "Report()");  // Resolves to PortraitReport()

The need stems from the fact that I have 6 types of Crystal Reports (that do the same thing, but look drastically different) for 50 states. There are 3 styles each, rather than entertain the notion of a giant switch block with nested if..else statements determining which of 900 reports to use, I was hoping for an eval-like solution.

Answer 1

You could use Activator.CreateInstance("myAssembly", "PortrainReport");. Although the more readable way would be to create a Portrait Factory, which would create the correct type for you.