Question

I have an array of objects (object[]). All the items in this array have the same type (unknown at compile time). I need to convert this array in a typed array, that is, if the items are integers, I want to get an int[].

I’ve looked into the Array.ConvertAll method, but I need to specify a specific type in the template, meaning that I have to get the element type then call ConvertAll for each case possible.

I’ve also looked into the keyword dynamic with no more luck (looks like dynamic[] is the same as object[]).

How can I achieve this?

Answer 1

Similar to Jon’s solution you can do without dynamic and make use of the Array type:

public Array Convert(Array a) {
  if (a.GetLength(0) == 0){
    return new int[0];
  }
  var type = a.GetValue(0).GetType();
  var result = Array.CreateInstance(type, a.GetLength(0));
  for (int i = 0; i < a.GetLength(0); i++) {
    result.SetValue(a.GetValue(i), i);
  }
  return result;
}