Question

I have two Classes (i.e. Customer, and Employee) and a generic repository GenericRepository<T> where T : class.

Is is possible to instantiate a new GenericRepository instance while assigning the value of T from a string?

Like this:

string x  = "Customer";
var repository = new GenericRepository<x>();

(thus creating a repository instance of type GenericRepository<Customer>)

Answer 1

Yes, but it’s very awkward.

string name = "MyNamespace.Customer";

Type targetType = Type.GetType(name);

Type genericType = typeof(GenericRepository<>).MakeGenericType( targetType );

object instance = Activator.CreateInstance(genericType);

In linqpad, instance.Dump(); :

GenericRepository<Customer> 
UserQuery+GenericRepository`1[UserQuery+Customer] 

Edit

You could assign the CreateInstance result to a dynamic, and not have to invoke methods through reflection.

dynamic instance = Activator.CreateInstance(genericType);
instance.SomeInstanceMethod(someParameter);