Creating a managed object by name

[bpratt]

I am moving from a C++/MFC environment to C# and the .NET framework. MFC allows C++ classes to be instantiated by name (a string value) at runtime by including runtime class macros in the C++ class definitions. I am looking for the C# .NET equivalent to this mechanism. Specifically, I need to be able to create an instance of a managed class at runtime given a string with the class name as its value. Any ideas? Thanks.

[klintan]

Yes, it can be done using System.Reflection.

[Zaccheus]

You need to get hold of an object of type System.Reflection.Assembly representing the assembly (i.e. the EXE or DLL) in which the class is defined.

You can then call Assembly.CreateInstance(fullClassNameWithNamespace);

For example you can create an instance of a class like this.

System.Object MakeMyObject(System.String fullClassNameWithNamespace)
{
// Get the assembly in which the current method is defined:
System.Reflection.Assembly thisAssembly = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();

// Create an instance of a class which is defined in this assembly.
return thisAssembly.CreateInstance(fullClassNameWithNamespace);
}