Question

I have a generic wrapper class which can sometimes receive an array type as its generic. I can tell if the supplied generic type is an array by the IsArray property. But is there a way that I can obtain the type of the array elements in code? I’ve looked at all the exposed attributes of a Type object and just not seeing it.

Example:

public class wrap<T>
{
    public void doSomething()
    {
        if (typeof(T).IsArray)
            Type arrayElementType = typeof(T).??? ;
    }
}
        // typeof(T) when an array is "int[]"
        // typeof(T).BaseType is "System.Array"
        // how to get "int" out of this?

Answer 1

You’re looking for the Type.GetElementType method.

When overridden in a derived class, returns the Type of the object
encompassed or referred to by the current array, pointer or reference
type.

Type arrayElementType = typeof(T).GetElementType();