Question

Is there a way to obtain the object behind a property by reflection?

I am trying to manage a dynamic setting of a property.

Example:

class Animal
{
  public string Name {get;set;}
  public string Family {get;set;}
}

class Zoo
{
 public Animal Lion {get;set;}
 public Animal Panda {get;set;}
}


class Test
{
   public void SetLionNameWithReflection()
  {

    Zoo londonZoo = new Zoo();
    Type zooType = typeof(Zoo);
    PropertyInfo lionProperty = zooType.GetProperty("Lion");

    // Now what to write here so that I can manage to set Lion's name to Kaspar?
    // (to manage this by reflection Lion.Name = "Kaspar");

  }

}

What lines should I add more at the commented part above?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I don’t think you actually need to know the object behind a property. Use the SetValue method to set its value to “Kaspar”:

EDIT – as per dlev’s comment, this is how it should look like:

Lion kaspar = new Lion { Name="Kaspar" };
zooType.SetValue(londonZoo, kaspar, null);