[c#] Get value of a specific object property in C# without knowing the class behind

I have an object (.NET) of type "object". I don't know the "real type (class)" behind it during runtime , but I know, that the object has a property "string name". How can I retrive the value of "name"? Is this possible?

something like this:

object item = AnyFunction(....);
string value = item.name;

In some cases, Reflection doesn't work properly.

You could use dictionaries, if all item types are the same. For instance, if your items are strings :

Dictionary<string, string> response = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<string, string>>(item);

Or ints:

Dictionary<string, int> response = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Dictionary<string, int>>(item);

Reflection can help you.

var someObject;
var propertyName = "PropertyWhichValueYouWantToKnow";
var propertyName = someObject.GetType().GetProperty(propertyName).GetValue(someObject, null);

Simply try this for all properties of an object,

foreach (var prop in myobject.GetType().GetProperties(BindingFlags.Public|BindingFlags.Instance))
{
   var propertyName = prop.Name;
   var propertyValue = myobject.GetType().GetProperty(propertyName).GetValue(myobject, null);

   //Debug.Print(prop.Name);
   //Debug.Print(Functions.convertNullableToString(propertyValue));

   Debug.Print(string.Format("Property Name={0} , Value={1}", prop.Name, Functions.convertNullableToString(propertyValue)));
}

NOTE: Functions.convertNullableToString() is custom function using for convert NULL value into string.empty.

Reflection and dynamic value access are correct solutions to this question but are quite slow. If your want something faster then you can create dynamic method using expressions:

  object value = GetValue();
  string propertyName = "MyProperty";

  var parameter = Expression.Parameter(typeof(object));
  var cast = Expression.Convert(parameter, value.GetType());
  var propertyGetter = Expression.Property(cast, propertyName);
  var castResult = Expression.Convert(propertyGetter, typeof(object));//for boxing

  var propertyRetriver = Expression.Lambda<Func<object, object>>(castResult, parameter).Compile();

 var retrivedPropertyValue = propertyRetriver(value);

This way is faster if you cache created functions. For instance in dictionary where key would be the actual type of object assuming that property name is not changing or some combination of type and property name.

You can do it using dynamic instead of object:

dynamic item = AnyFunction(....);
string value = item.name;

Note that the Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) has built-in caching mechanisms, so subsequent calls are very fast.