Question

I think it’s more difficult to ask than answering the question.
I wanna ask my question with an example:
You know that we can bind an object to a DataSource, and that object could be of any type. So suppose I’ve bound an object of type “MyClass” to DataSource of a DataSet.
Now I send this dataset as a parameter to another class in another DLL, and in this DLL file I want to create a List<> of type of “MyClass”.
As I have not access to “MyClass” type i can use this code to get the type of DataSource:

_dataSet.DataSource.GetType()

but I can’t use the code like the following to create a List of type of “MyClass”:
List<_dataSet.DataSource.GetType()> _list;

What should I do in this situation?

Answer 1

There are basically two options:

1. stick with List<object> or, better, we the closest known ancestor type of _dataSet.DataSource
2. or use a nasty reflection hack to instantiate a List<T> dynamically.

I’d personally resort to option (1) in most cases because it is:

• easier to use,
• readable,
• sufficiently type safe,
• universal in terms of natural code reuse.

The second option was already elaborated in other answers.