I need some way to get the Name of a Type, when type.IsGenericType
= true
.
Type t = typeof(List<String>);
MessageBox.Show( ..?.. );
What I want, is a message box to pop up with List
showing... how can I do that?
I need some way to get the Name of a Type, when type.IsGenericType
= true
.
Type t = typeof(List<String>);
MessageBox.Show( ..?.. );
What I want, is a message box to pop up with List
showing... how can I do that?
Type t = ...;
if (t.IsGenericType)
{
Type g = t.GetGenericTypeDefinition();
MessageBox.Show(g.Name); // displays "List`1"
MessageBox.Show(g.Name.Remove(g.Name.IndexOf('`'))); // displays "List"
}
You can implement an extension method to get the "friendly name" of a type, like this:
public static class TypeNameExtensions
{
public static string GetFriendlyName(this Type type)
{
string friendlyName = type.Name;
if (type.IsGenericType)
{
int iBacktick = friendlyName.IndexOf('`');
if (iBacktick > 0)
{
friendlyName = friendlyName.Remove(iBacktick);
}
friendlyName += "<";
Type[] typeParameters = type.GetGenericArguments();
for (int i = 0; i < typeParameters.Length; ++i)
{
string typeParamName = GetFriendlyName(typeParameters[i]);
friendlyName += (i == 0 ? typeParamName : "," + typeParamName);
}
friendlyName += ">";
}
return friendlyName;
}
}
With this in your project, you can now say:
MessageBox.Show(t.GetFriendlyName());
And it will display "List<String>".
I know the OP didn't ask for the generic type parameters, but I prefer it that way. ;-)
Namespaces, standard aliases for built-in types, and use of StringBuilder left as an exercise for the reader. ;-)
My take on yoyo's approach. Ensures more friendly names for primitives, handles arrays and is recursive to handle nested generics. Also unit tests.
private static readonly Dictionary<Type, string> _typeToFriendlyName = new Dictionary<Type, string>
{
{ typeof(string), "string" },
{ typeof(object), "object" },
{ typeof(bool), "bool" },
{ typeof(byte), "byte" },
{ typeof(char), "char" },
{ typeof(decimal), "decimal" },
{ typeof(double), "double" },
{ typeof(short), "short" },
{ typeof(int), "int" },
{ typeof(long), "long" },
{ typeof(sbyte), "sbyte" },
{ typeof(float), "float" },
{ typeof(ushort), "ushort" },
{ typeof(uint), "uint" },
{ typeof(ulong), "ulong" },
{ typeof(void), "void" }
};
public static string GetFriendlyName(this Type type)
{
string friendlyName;
if (_typeToFriendlyName.TryGetValue(type, out friendlyName))
{
return friendlyName;
}
friendlyName = type.Name;
if (type.IsGenericType)
{
int backtick = friendlyName.IndexOf('`');
if (backtick > 0)
{
friendlyName = friendlyName.Remove(backtick);
}
friendlyName += "<";
Type[] typeParameters = type.GetGenericArguments();
for (int i = 0; i < typeParameters.Length; i++)
{
string typeParamName = typeParameters[i].GetFriendlyName();
friendlyName += (i == 0 ? typeParamName : ", " + typeParamName);
}
friendlyName += ">";
}
if (type.IsArray)
{
return type.GetElementType().GetFriendlyName() + "[]";
}
return friendlyName;
}
[TestFixture]
public class TypeHelperTest
{
[Test]
public void TestGetFriendlyName()
{
Assert.AreEqual("string", typeof(string).FriendlyName());
Assert.AreEqual("int[]", typeof(int[]).FriendlyName());
Assert.AreEqual("int[][]", typeof(int[][]).FriendlyName());
Assert.AreEqual("KeyValuePair<int, string>", typeof(KeyValuePair<int, string>).FriendlyName());
Assert.AreEqual("Tuple<int, string>", typeof(Tuple<int, string>).FriendlyName());
Assert.AreEqual("Tuple<KeyValuePair<object, long>, string>", typeof(Tuple<KeyValuePair<object, long>, string>).FriendlyName());
Assert.AreEqual("List<Tuple<int, string>>", typeof(List<Tuple<int, string>>).FriendlyName());
Assert.AreEqual("Tuple<short[], string>", typeof(Tuple<short[], string>).FriendlyName());
}
}
Assuming you just want to see that its List<T>
instead of List<string>
you'd need to do:
MessageBox.Show(t.GetGenericTypeDefinition().FullName)
See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.type.getgenerictypedefinition.aspx
public static class TypeNameExtensions
{
public static string GetFriendlyName(this Type type)
{
var friendlyName = type.Name;
if (!type.IsGenericType) return friendlyName;
var iBacktick = friendlyName.IndexOf('`');
if (iBacktick > 0) friendlyName = friendlyName.Remove(iBacktick);
var genericParameters = type.GetGenericArguments().Select(x => x.GetFriendlyName());
friendlyName += "<" + string.Join(", ", genericParameters) + ">";
return friendlyName;
}
}
Here is my take on this. I did not put the backtick check since for what I see, it's always there. You can add it if you want but I like to keep things simple.
public static string GetFriendlyName(this Type type)
{
if (type.IsGenericType)
{
var name = type.Name.Substring(0, type.Name.IndexOf('`'));
var types = string.Join(",", type.GetGenericArguments().Select(GetFriendlyName));
return $"{name}<{types}>";
}
else
{
return type.Name;
}
}
i have improved yoyos version for the usage in Code Generation. Note that all types are now referenced full qualified => global::System.String.
public static string GetFriendlyTypeName(Type type)
{
string friendlyName = type.Name;
if (type.IsGenericType)
{
int iBacktick = friendlyName.IndexOf('`');
if (iBacktick > 0)
{
friendlyName = friendlyName.Remove(iBacktick);
}
friendlyName += "<";
Type[] typeParameters = type.GetGenericArguments();
for (int i = 0; i < typeParameters.Length; ++i)
{
string typeParamName = GetFriendlyTypeName(typeParameters[i]);
friendlyName += (i == 0 ? typeParamName : "," + typeParamName);
}
friendlyName += ">";
friendlyName = "global::" + type.Namespace + "." + friendlyName;
}
else
{
friendlyName = "global::" + type.FullName;
}
return friendlyName.Replace('+', '.');
}