In Visual Basic.net, can I create an Object, or a List of T with the type from another object.
Here is some code:
Dim TestObjectType As Author
Dim TestObject As TestObjectType.GetType
I am getting an error:
TestObjectType.GetType is not defined
EDIT
Can I create a Type object of a certain type, and then create objects, lists or cast objects to this type from this Type object?
Dim TestObject As TestObjectType.GetType will look for a type named GetType in the namespace TestObjectType.
To create an instance of a class using System.Type, you can use Activator.CreateInstance:
Dim TestObject = Activator.CreateInstance(TestObjectType.GetType())
To create a generic list, you can use Type.MakeGenericType:
Dim listType = GetType(List(Of )).MakeGenericType(TestObjectType.GetType())
Dim list = Activator.CreateInstance(listType)
Note that both snippets above return an Object; however, you can make use of generics to achieve compile time safety:
Dim TestObject = CreateNew(TestObjectType)
Dim AuthorList = CreateNewList(TestObjectType)
...
Function CreateNew(Of T As New)(obj As T) As T
Return New T()
End Function
Function CreateNewList(Of T)(obj As T) As List(Of T)
Return New List(Of T)
End Function
Dim authorType As System.Type = GetType(Author)? and then create objects, lists Yes, look at my answer. * or cast objects to this type from this Type object* That doesn't make sense, since casting is only useful at compile-time. You don't know which type the System.Type you like to cast to will actually represent.