Question

The reflection code below returns:

System.Collections.Generic.IList`1[TestReflection.Car] Cars

How can I get the Cars root type through reflection? Not IList<Car> – how can I get Car?

using System;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Collections.Generic;

namespace TestReflection
{
    class MainClass
    {
        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Type t = typeof(Dealer);
            MemberInfo[] mi = t.GetMember("Cars");

            Console.WriteLine("{0}", mi[0].ToString());
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }

    class Dealer
    {
        public IList<Car> Cars { get; set; }
    }

    class Car
    {
        public string CarModel { get; set; }
    }
}

Answer 1

The easiest way would be to produce a PropertyInfo that represented the property in question and then its underlying type via PropertyInfo.PropertyType. Then it’s just a matter of retrieving the type arguments for this generic type, for which you could use Type.GetGenericArguments.

Type carsElementType = typeof(Dealer)
                        .GetProperty("Cars") 
                        .PropertyType // typeof(IList<Car>)
                        .GetGenericArguments() // new[] { typeof(Car) }
                        .Single(); // typeof(Car)