I'm currently looking to build dynamic type converter,
for example, I can easily do :
public struct Tester
{
public int Hello;
public static implicit operator int(Tester d)
{
return d.Hello;
}
public static implicit operator float(Tester d)
{
return d.Hello;
}
}
then
typeof(Tester).GetMethods()
Will return me implicit cast MethodInfo.
However, if I do:
typeof(int).GetMethods()
It will not return any op_implicit
I've seen that you can see the table here , but I was wondering if it's possible to reflect it from the framework itself.
Please note that it's not really a blocking issue, if it's not possible, I'll add converters from the table manually, but I would obviously prefer to have this dynamically built (cleaner and less error prone).
The operators for the primitive types aren't defined in the framework - they're part of the CLI itself; they have their own special instructions, basically. There's no IL involved, no methods, so nothing for a MethodInfo
to refer to.
If you look at System.Decimal
, however, you'll find the operators as that's implemented "just" in the framework itself.
(In a slightly similar way, string
doesn't declare a +
operator; uses of +
within C# are converted to calls to string.Concat
.)
Jon of course is right. However, it might be useful for you to take a look at System.Linq.Expressions.Expression
class (and especially Convert
method). For instance, one can quickly build something like this:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Linq.Expressions;
namespace Tests
{
static class ConvertTest
{
// conceptual point
static Func<TInput, TOutput> CreateConvertFunc<TInput, TOutput>()
{
var source = Expression.Parameter(typeof(TInput), "source");
// the next will throw if no conversion exists
var convert = Expression.Convert(source, typeof(TOutput));
var method = convert.Method;
if (method != null)
{
// here is your method info
}
else
{
// here is the case of primitive types
// unfortunately it would not help you, because it's resolved when you call Complile.
// but you can take a look at reference implementation how they handle it
}
return Expression.Lambda<Func<TInput, TOutput>>(convert, source).Compile();
}
// cache
struct ConverterFunc<TInput, TOutput>
{
public static readonly Func<TInput, TOutput> Instance = CreateConvertFunc<TInput, TOutput>();
}
// fluent accessor
struct ConvertSource<T>
{
public T source;
public U To<U>()
{
try { return ConverterFunc<T, U>.Instance(source); }
catch (TypeInitializationException e) { throw e.InnerException; }
}
}
static ConvertSource<T> Convert<T>(this T source) { return new ConvertSource<T> { source = source }; }
// test
struct Wrapper<T>
{
public T Value;
public static implicit operator Wrapper<T>(T source) { return new Wrapper<T> { Value = source }; }
public static implicit operator T(Wrapper<T> source) { return source.Value; }
}
class A { }
class B : A { }
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var v0 = 1;
var v1 = v0.Convert().To<byte>();
var v2 = v1.Convert().To<double>();
var v3 = v2.Convert().To<decimal>();
var v4 = v3.Convert().To<Wrapper<decimal>>();
var v5 = v4.Convert().To<decimal?>();
var v6 = v5.Convert().To<int>();
var v7 = Enumerable.Empty<B>().Convert().To<IEnumerable<A>>();
var v8 = v7.Convert().To<int>(); // exception
}
}
}