CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#reflection
pistacchio
pistacchio

Reputation: 58863

How to dynamically call a class' method in .NET?

How to pass a class and a method name as strings and invoke that class' method?

Like

void caller(string myclass, string mymethod){
    // call myclass.mymethod();
}

Thanks

Upvotes: 15

Views: 26335

Answers (3)

clemahieu
clemahieu

Reputation: 1429

What's your reason for doing this? More than likely you can do this without reflection, up to and including dynamic assembly loading.

Upvotes: -3

Kenan E. K.
Kenan E. K.

Reputation: 14111

Something like this:

public object InvokeByName(string typeName, string methodName)
{
    Type callType = Type.GetType(typeName);

    return callType.InvokeMember(methodName, 
                    BindingFlags.InvokeMethod | BindingFlags.Public, 
                    null, null, null);
}

You should modify the binding flags according to the method you wish to call, as well as check the Type.InvokeMember method in msdn to be certain of what you really need.

Upvotes: 9

Andrew Hare
Andrew Hare

Reputation: 351456

You will want to use reflection.

Here is a simple example:

using System;
using System.Reflection;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        caller("Foo", "Bar");
    }

    static void caller(String myclass, String mymethod)
    {
        // Get a type from the string 
        Type type = Type.GetType(myclass);
        // Create an instance of that type
        Object obj = Activator.CreateInstance(type);
        // Retrieve the method you are looking for
        MethodInfo methodInfo = type.GetMethod(mymethod);
        // Invoke the method on the instance we created above
        methodInfo.Invoke(obj, null);
    }
}

class Foo
{
    public void Bar()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Bar");
    }
}

Now this is a very simple example, devoid of error checking and also ignores bigger problems like what to do if the type lives in another assembly but I think this should set you on the right track.

Upvotes: 34

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