Question

I have the following class (with private .ctor and a public factory method)

public class TypeWithFactoryMethods
{
    private TypeWithFactoryMethods()
    {
    }

    public static TypeWithFactoryMethods Create()
    {
        return new TypeWithFactoryMethods();
    }
}

What is the best way to invoke the public factory method (Create) via reflection so I can get an instance of the type?

Answer 1

Not quite sure what the goal is, but this would do it:

Type type = typeof(TypeWithFactoryMethods);
MethodInfo info = type.GetMethod("Create", BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.Public);
object myObject = info.Invoke(null, null);
myObject.GetType(); //returns TypeWithFactoryMethods

Update after comment

If you want to find all methods that return your specified type you can use Linq to find them:

Type type = typeof(TypeWithFactoryMethods);
List<MethodInfo> methods = type.GetMethods(BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.Public)
    .Where(m => m.ReturnType == type).ToList();
foreach (var method in methods)
{
    ParameterInfo[] parameters = method.GetParameters(); //use parameters to decide how to invoke
    object myObject = method.Invoke(null, null);
    myObject.GetType(); //returns TypeWithFactoryMethods
}