Question

I have two classes:

  class Car<T>
{
    public string color { get; set; }
    public virtual T features { get; set; }
    public virtual void TestDrive();
}
class Toyota : Car<ToyotaFeatures>
{
    public override ToyotaFeatures features { get; set; }
    public override void TestDrive()
    {
        //Logic here...
    }
}

Now i have a full string class name: “MySol.MyProj.Toyota”
I want to instantiate a class by my string name and then run TestDrive().
The problem is that when I try to run Activator.CreateInstance(null, "MySol.MyProj.Toyota");
I cannot cast it to a base class and run testDrive because it is expecting ToyotaFeatures class to be passed to it. but I just want to run TestDrive() only having a string class name.

And I don’t want to cast it to specific type. only to base type so it can decide which TestDrive() to run based on the provided string.

Answer 1

For that purposes interfaces are extra good.

interface ITestDrivable
{
    void TestDrive();
}

Your abstract class implements the interface:

class Car<T> : ITestDrivable
{
    public string Color { get; set; }
    public virtual T Features { get; set; }
    public abstract void TestDrive() { }
}

And casting comes very easy:

ITestDrivable car = (ITestDrivable)Activator.CreateInstance(null, "MySol.MyProj.Toyota");
car.TestDrive();