Question

I have a class that needs to have a variable of an unknown numeric type. I need to get the data type from a specific column at run time, then cast/instantiate the class variable as that type, and then keep a running total of that column as I iterate rows. I thought about representing my class variable as dynamic, but that doesn’t sit right with me. I also thought about using a generic method, but again, I feel like there’s a better way to do this. A generic property would be great, but, well, you know how that story ends.

Updated, here’s what’s left of the code I’ve been working with:

dynamic dc = dataRow["MyColumnName"];
var tempValue = Convert.ChangeType(dataRow["MyColumnName"], Type.GetType(dc.GetType().ToString())); 
total+= (Decimal)tempValue;

Answer 1

I ended up solving it like this:

public int MyMethod<T>(DataTable myDataTable)
{
    dynamic myTempVariable = default(T);
    ...
}

It’s not a perfect solution (I didn’t want to have to know the column data type before calling the method), but this gives me the flexibility I wanted inside of the method.