Generics, reflection setting of property values

• • Reply

  10 years ago

  by Eric.Truter

  Eric Truter

  Johannesburg, South Africa

  Joined 10 years ago

  Hi guys,

  Ran myself into a brick wall trying to accomplish, what is quite easily possible without generics.

  Review the following code:

  01. public abstract class Sniffer<T>
  02. {
  03. public List<T> Sniff(string query)
  04. {
  05. Type type = typeof(T);
  06.
  07. foreach (PropertyInfo info in type.GetProperties())
  08. {
  09. info.SetValue(type, "value_to_set", null);
  10. }
  11. }
  12. }
  

  Line #09 throws and exception on the invocation on the target type, which it cannot determine from 'type'. I tried to get the type back from type, but that only brings back the underlying runtime type, which is also not valid.

  Does any one have an idea on how I can get this model to work, I'm sure that this is possible?

  Thanks, Eric

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• • Reply

  10 years ago

  by kyled_nz

  Kyle Davies

  Auckland, New Zealand

  Joined 10 years ago

  Hi Eric,

  In order to set the value of the property you must have an instance of the type class. You can create an instance by going :

  Type type = typeof(T); T instance = Activator.CreateInstance(type)

  Then:

  info.SetValue(instance, "valuetoset", null);

  Looking at the code however, you should only be returning 1 instance, and not a list of your type?

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