Question

I have:

• data type (all types are values types) as string (for example: ‘System.Boolean’)
• data value as string (for example: ‘true’)

I have to get:

• instance of value type
• this instance should be initialized by that value

I have started from

object v = Activator.CreateInstance(System.Type.GetType('type as string', true, true),..);

and I don’t know how to initialize v to value: how can I convert dynamically value as string to bool (or other value types) and assign it to v?

Thank you.

Answer 1

Have you tried using Convert.ChangeType?

object v = Convert.ChangeType(text, Type.GetType(typeName));

That will only work for certain target types, but that may be enough for you.

EDIT: Ultimately, you’ll need a set of types you want to support. You may want to have some sort of Dictionary<Type, Func<string, object>> and a method which is able to disguise how you handle more general cases (such as enums).