Question

I am trying to create a list of a custom type that is set at runtime. How is this possible?

Here is my code:

Type customType = typeof(string); // or someOtherVariable.GetType();

List<customType> ls = new List<customType>(); // Error: The type or namespace name `customType' could not be found

Answer 1

If you want to instantiate a generic list of some reflected type, you’ll have to use Reflection to do so:

var type = typeof(string);

var list = typeof(List<>);
var listOfType = list.MakeGenericType(type);

var instance = Activator.CreateInstance(listOfType);