Passing arguments to C# generic new() of templated

Question

I'm trying to create a new object of type T via its constructor when adding to the list.

I'm getting a compile error: The error message is:

'T': cannot provide arguments when creating an instance of a variable

But my classes do have a constructor argument! How can I make this work?

public static string GetAllItems<T>(...) where T : new()
{
   ...
   List<T> tabListItems = new List<T>();
   foreach (ListItem listItem in listCollection) 
   {
       tabListItems.Add(new T(listItem)); // error here.
   } 
   ...
}

Answer 1

Since nobody bothered to post the 'Reflection' answer (which I personally think is the best answer), here goes:

public static string GetAllItems<T>(...) where T : new()
{
   ...
   List<T> tabListItems = new List<T>();
   foreach (ListItem listItem in listCollection) 
   {
       Type classType = typeof(T);
       ConstructorInfo classConstructor = classType.GetConstructor(new Type[] { listItem.GetType() });
       T classInstance = (T)classConstructor.Invoke(new object[] { listItem });

       tabListItems.Add(classInstance);
   } 
   ...
}

Edit: This answer is deprecated due to .NET 3.5's Activator.CreateInstance, however it is still useful in older .NET versions.

Answer 2

This is kind of mucky, and when I say kind of mucky I may mean revolting, but supposing you can furnish your parameterised type with an empty constructor, then:

public static T GetTInstance<T>() where T: new()
{
    var constructorTypeSignature = new Type[] {typeof (object)};
    var constructorParameters = new object[] {"Create a T"};
    return (T) new T().GetType().GetConstructor(constructorTypeSignature).Invoke(constructorParameters);
}

Will effectively allow you to construct an object from a parameterised type with an argument. In this case I am assuming the constructor I want has a single argument of type object. We create a dummy instance of T using the constraint permitted empty constructor and then use reflection to get one of its other constructors.

Answer 3

Object initializer

If your constructor with the parameter isn't doing anything besides setting a property, you can do this in C# 3 or better using an object initializer rather than calling a constructor (which is impossible, as has been mentioned):

public static string GetAllItems<T>(...) where T : new()
{
   ...
   List<T> tabListItems = new List<T>();
   foreach (ListItem listItem in listCollection) 
   {
       tabListItems.Add(new T() { YourPropertyName = listItem } ); // Now using object initializer
   } 
   ...
}

Using this, you can always put any constructor logic in the default (empty) constructor, too.

Activator.CreateInstance()

Alternatively, you could call Activator.CreateInstance() like so:

public static string GetAllItems<T>(...) where T : new()
{
   ...
   List<T> tabListItems = new List<T>();
   foreach (ListItem listItem in listCollection) 
   {
        object[] args = new object[] { listItem };
        tabListItems.Add((T)Activator.CreateInstance(typeof(T), args)); // Now using Activator.CreateInstance
   } 
   ...
}

Note that Activator.CreateInstance can have some performance overhead that you may want to avoid if execution speed is a top priority and another option is maintainable to you.

Answer 4

Very old question, but new answer ;-)

The ExpressionTree version: (I think the fastests and cleanest solution)

Like Welly Tambunan said, "we could also use expression tree to build the object"

This will generate a 'constructor' (function) for the type/parameters given. It returns a delegate and accept the parameter types as an array of objects.

Here it is:

// this delegate is just, so you don't have to pass an object array. _(params)_
public delegate object ConstructorDelegate(params object[] args);

public static ConstructorDelegate CreateConstructor(Type type, params Type[] parameters)
{
    // Get the constructor info for these parameters
    var constructorInfo = type.GetConstructor(parameters);

    // define a object[] parameter
    var paramExpr = Expression.Parameter(typeof(Object[]));

    // To feed the constructor with the right parameters, we need to generate an array 
    // of parameters that will be read from the initialize object array argument.
    var constructorParameters = parameters.Select((paramType, index) =>
        // convert the object[index] to the right constructor parameter type.
        Expression.Convert(
            // read a value from the object[index]
            Expression.ArrayAccess(
                paramExpr,
                Expression.Constant(index)),
            paramType)).ToArray();

    // just call the constructor.
    var body = Expression.New(constructorInfo, constructorParameters);

    var constructor = Expression.Lambda<ConstructorDelegate>(body, paramExpr);
    return constructor.Compile();
}

---

Example MyClass:

public class MyClass
{
    public int TestInt { get; private set; }
    public string TestString { get; private set; }

    public MyClass(int testInt, string testString)
    {
        TestInt = testInt;
        TestString = testString;
    }
}

---

Usage:

// you should cache this 'constructor'
var myConstructor = CreateConstructor(typeof(MyClass), typeof(int), typeof(string));

// Call the `myConstructor` fucntion to create a new instance.
var myObject = myConstructor(10, "test message");

---

Another example: passing the types as an array

var type = typeof(MyClass);
var args = new Type[] { typeof(int), typeof(string) };

// you should cache this 'constructor'
var myConstructor = CreateConstructor(type, args);

// Call the `myConstructor` fucntion to create a new instance.
var myObject = myConstructor(10, "test message");

---

DebugView of Expression

.Lambda #Lambda1<TestExpressionConstructor.MainWindow+ConstructorDelegate>(System.Object[] $var1) {
    .New TestExpressionConstructor.MainWindow+MyClass(
        (System.Int32)$var1[0],
        (System.String)$var1[1])
}

---

This is equivalent to the code that is generated:

public object myConstructor(object[] var1)
{
    return new MyClass(
        (System.Int32)var1[0],
        (System.String)var1[1]);
}

---

Small downside

All valuetypes parameters are boxed when they are passed like an object array.

---

Simple performance test:

private void TestActivator()
{
    Stopwatch sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();
    for (int i = 0; i < 1024 * 1024 * 10; i++)
    {
        var myObject = Activator.CreateInstance(typeof(MyClass), 10, "test message");
    }
    sw.Stop();
    Trace.WriteLine("Activator: " + sw.Elapsed);
}

private void TestReflection()
{
    var constructorInfo = typeof(MyClass).GetConstructor(new[] { typeof(int), typeof(string) });

    Stopwatch sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();
    for (int i = 0; i < 1024 * 1024 * 10; i++)
    {
        var myObject = constructorInfo.Invoke(new object[] { 10, "test message" });
    }

    sw.Stop();
    Trace.WriteLine("Reflection: " + sw.Elapsed);
}

private void TestExpression()
{
    var myConstructor = CreateConstructor(typeof(MyClass), typeof(int), typeof(string));

    Stopwatch sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();

    for (int i = 0; i < 1024 * 1024 * 10; i++)
    {
        var myObject = myConstructor(10, "test message");
    }

    sw.Stop();
    Trace.WriteLine("Expression: " + sw.Elapsed);
}

TestActivator();
TestReflection();
TestExpression();

Results:

Activator: 00:00:13.8210732
Reflection: 00:00:05.2986945
Expression: 00:00:00.6681696

Using Expressions is +/- 8 times faster than Invoking the ConstructorInfo and +/- 20 times faster than using the Activator

Answer 5

I believe you have to constraint T with a where statement to only allow objects with a new constructor.

RIght now it accepts anything including objects without it.

Answer 6

In order to create an instance of a generic type in a function you must constrain it with the "new" flag.

public static string GetAllItems<T>(...) where T : new()

However that will only work when you want to call the constructor which has no parameters. Not the case here. Instead you'll have to provide another parameter which allows for the creation of object based on parameters. The easiest is a function.

public static string GetAllItems<T>(..., Func<ListItem,T> del) {
  ...
  List<T> tabListItems = new List<T>();
  foreach (ListItem listItem in listCollection) 
  {
    tabListItems.Add(del(listItem));
  }
  ...
}

You can then call it like so

GetAllItems<Foo>(..., l => new Foo(l));