Question

I recently discovered a trick using casting by example to instantiate a generic with an anonymous type.

http://brendanjerwin.com/blog/2009/03/19/anonymous-generics/

So, its a neat trick, but when would it be used? Any ideas?

Answer 1

The primary place I use this trick is for creating a collection container for anonymous types.

public static List<T> CreateListOfAnonymous<T>(T unused) {   return new List<T>(); } 

Usage:

public void Foo() {   var list = CreateListOfAnonymous(new { Name = String.Empty, Age = 42 });   list.Add(new { Name = 'foo', Age = 28 }); }