Getting Class object from its string name in C#

Question

I'm using C# for developing mobile applications(Monotouch, monodroid). I have a class by this definition:

public class TempIOAddOn : BaseIOAddOn 
{
    public TempIOAddOn ()
    {
    }
}

And I use this code to access an instance of class by its string name:

BaseIOAddOn tempIOAddOn;
            Type t= Type.GetType("TempIOAddOn" );
            tempIOAddOn  = (BaseIOAddOn)Activator.CreateInstance(t);

But after executation, t is null.

I tried below code also:

BaseIOAddOn tempIOAddOn;
            tempIOAddOn = (BaseIOAddOn )System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CreateInstance("TempIOAddOn" );

But again I face with null. tempIOAddOn is null.

What is wrong with me?

Try using the [Assembly Qualified Name](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.type.assemblyqualifiedname.aspx) instead. If it's running Xamarin, it _might_ need to full qualified name. I've had the same limitations with Silverlight. — Chris Sinclair, Apr 27 '13 at 11:46
possible duplicate of [Getting a System.Type from a type's partial name](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/179102/getting-a-system-type-from-types-partial-name) **and** [type-gettypenamespace-a-b-classname-returns-null](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1825147/type-gettypenamespace-a-b-classname-returns-null) — nawfal, Dec 05 '13 at 19:37

score 8 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 27 '13 at 11:49

8

Your class is almost certainly included in a namespace. In this case you need to qualify the name of the type with its namespace:

Type t= Type.GetType("MyNamespace.TempIOAddOn");

answered Apr 27 '13 at 11:49

Sergey Kalinichenko

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Thanks for reply. both answer is correct and just can choose one as answer. Instead 1 upvote for clear answer. – Husein Behboudi Rad Apr 27 '13 at 12:05

Chris Sinclair · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-20T09:48:40.190

Try using the Assembly Qualified Name instead. If it's running Xamarin, it might need to use the full qualified name. I've had the same limitations with Silverlight.

To quickly get the full name, just reference the type and output it:

Console.WriteLine(typeof(TempIOAddon).AssemblyQualifiedName);

EDIT: Here's the MSDN doc for Type.GetType(string) for Silverlight. Since Xamarin's mobile platform is more or less based off it, generally the docs can apply: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/w3f99sx1%28v=vs.95%29.aspx

Note that likely if the type is in the currently executing assembly, you'll probably only need the full namespace.name

Getting Class object from its string name in C#

2 Answers2