How to find all the classes which implement a give

Question

Under a given namespace, I have a set of classes which implement an interface. Let's call it ISomething. I have another class (let's call it CClass) which knows about ISomething but doesn't know about the classes which implement that interface.

I would like that CClass to look for all the implementation of ISomething, instantiate an instance of it and execute the method.

Does anybody have an idea on how to do that with C# 3.5?

Answer 1

You could use something like the following and tailor it to your needs.

var _interfaceType = typeof(ISomething);
var currentAssembly = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
var types = GetType().GetNestedTypes();

foreach (var type in types)
{
    if (_interfaceType.IsAssignableFrom(type) && type.IsPublic && !type.IsInterface)
    {
        ISomething something = (ISomething)currentAssembly.CreateInstance(type.FullName, false);
        something.TheMethod();
    }
}

This code could use some performance enhancements but it's a start.

Answer 2

You can get a list of loaded assemblies by using this:

Assembly assembly = System.Reflection.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies()

From there, you can get a list of types in the assembly (assuming public types):

Type[] types = assembly.GetExportedTypes();

Then you can ask each type whether it supports that interface by finding that interface on the object:

Type interfaceType = type.GetInterface("ISomething");

Not sure if there is a more efficient way of doing this with reflection.

Answer 3

A example using Linq:

var types =
  myAssembly.GetTypes()
            .Where(m => m.IsClass && m.GetInterface("IMyInterface") != null);

Answer 4

foreach (Type t in Assembly.GetCallingAssembly().GetTypes())
{
    if (t.GetInterface("ITheInterface") != null)
    {
        ITheInterface executor = Activator.CreateInstance(t) as ITheInterface;
        executor.PerformSomething();
    }
}

Answer 5

A working code-sample:

var instances = from t in Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetTypes()
                where t.GetInterfaces().Contains(typeof(ISomething))
                         && t.GetConstructor(Type.EmptyTypes) != null
                select Activator.CreateInstance(t) as ISomething;

foreach (var instance in instances)
{
    instance.Foo(); // where Foo is a method of ISomething
}

Edit Added a check for a parameterless constructor so that the call to CreateInstance will succeed.

Answer 6

Maybe we should go this way

foreach ( var instance in Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetTypes().Where(a => a.GetConstructor(Type.EmptyTypes) != null).Select(Activator.CreateInstance).OfType<ISomething>() ) 
   instance.Execute();