Question

I have a little Problem:
I have a method that parses an incoming string for certain values, if a value is found, a new class is instantiated. The class name is identical to the parsed string. At the moment, my code looks like this:

Public Class Test1
End Class

Public Class Important
End Class

Public Class DoWork
Public Sub DoWork(incoming as String)
Select case incoming
case "Test1"
dim myobj as new Test1
Case "Important"
dim myobj as new Important
End Select
End Sub
End Class

I do not like the string literals like “Test1” – i could store them in a constant, but if the class names change, they have to be changed too. Is there a way to replace the literals with the Name of class?
I know that me.gettype produces the result for instantiated objects, but what about the simple name for a class, which is no object at this moment?

Answer 1

If your string is in correct format you can use Type.GetType(string) method to retrieve type. Then you can use Activator class to create instance if you have default constructor on that type.