How do I get the properties from a subclass when I have the class but subclass name as a string

Question

I have a method which gets the name of a sub class from an error message, as below

string jobDesc = getDtlName(serviceResponse.ErrorMessages[0].Error);

I have the Class and want to access the sub class properties but how can I do that when I only have the sub class name as a string.

Java have a method which works like this

Class myClass = Class.forName(jobDesc);

How can I do the same in C#?

Answer 1

You can get all loaded assemblies using AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies(),
then get all types of these assemblies with .SelectMany(a => a.GetTypes())
then select the one type with the given name with .Single(t => t.Name == jobDesc).

Keep in mind that Single throws an exception if not exactly 1 element matches the condition.
If you have multiple types with the same name (in different namespaces) you should use Where instead.
If there may be no matching classes, use SingleOrDefault, which returns null if there is no matching element.

AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies().SelectMany(a => a.GetTypes())
    .Single(t => t.Name == jobDesc)

If the desired class is in the assembly that is currently executed, you can also use

System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetTypes()
    .Single(t => t.Name == jobDesc)

Answer 2

You need to do something like this,

string jobDesc = getDtlName(serviceResponse.ErrorMessages[0].Error);
SomeClass myClass = new SomeClass();
// set some class values,

var classType = typeof(SomeClass );                   
PropertyInfo info = classType.GetProperty(jobDesc);
var propertyValue = info.GetValue(myClass, null);

You might need to do a minor changes as I haven't tested this solution,

Answer 3

I managed to get a working solution using Properties with the code below

PropertyInfo[] properties = typeof(UIStaticFieldErrors).GetProperties();
foreach (PropertyInfo property in properties)
{
    if (property.ToString() == "Boolean " + jobDesc)
    {
         property.SetValue(errorSF, true);
    }
}

I get the properties of UIStaticFieldErrors in properties and then iterate through until I get a match for jobDesc, then I update that field to true. The variable errorSF is an instance of UIStaticFieldErrors.