[c#] Type.GetType("namespace.a.b.ClassName") returns null

This code:

Type.GetType("namespace.a.b.ClassName")

returns null.

and I have in the usings:

using namespace.a.b;

Update:

The type exists, it's in a different class library, and i need to get it by string name.

I am opening user controls depending on what user controls the user have access to specified in a database. So I used this method to get the TypeName...

Dim strType As String = GetType(Namespace.ClassName).AssemblyQualifiedName.ToString
Dim obj As UserControl = Activator.CreateInstance(Type.GetType(strType))

So now one can use the value returned in strType to create an instance of that object.

This solution above seems to be the best to me, but it didn't work for me, so I did it as follows:

AssemblyName assemblyName = AssemblyName.GetAssemblyName(HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~\\Bin\\AnotherAssembly.dll"));
string typeAssemblyQualifiedName = string.Join(", ", "MyNamespace.MyType", assemblyName.FullName);

Type myType = Type.GetType(typeAssemblyQualifiedName);

The precondition is that you know the path of the assembly. In my case I know it because this is an assembly built from another internal project and its included in our project's bin folder.

In case it matters I am using Visual Studio 2013, my target .NET is 4.0. This is an ASP.NET project, so I am getting absolute path via HttpContext. However, absolute path is not a requirement as it seems from MSDN on AssemblyQualifiedNames

Make sure that the comma is directly after the fully qualified name

typeof(namespace.a.b.ClassName, AssemblyName)

As this wont work

typeof(namespace.a.b.ClassName ,AssemblyName)

I was stumped for a few days on this one

When I have only the class name I use this:

Type obj = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies().SelectMany(t => t.GetTypes()).Where(t => String.Equals(t.Name, _viewModelName, StringComparison.Ordinal)).First();

If the assembly is part of the build of an ASP.NET application, you can use the BuildManager class:

using System.Web.Compilation
...
BuildManager.GetType(typeName, false);

Try using the full type name that includes the assembly info, for example:

string typeName = @"MyCompany.MyApp.MyDomain.MyClass, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null";
Type myClassType = Type.GetType(typeName);

I had the same situation when I was using only the the namesspace.classname to get the type of a class in a different assembly and it would not work. Only worked when I included the assembly info in my type string as shown above.

As Type.GetType(String) need the Type.AssemblyQualifiedName you should use Assembly.CreateQualifiedName(String, String).

string typeName = "MyNamespace.MyClass"; // Type.FullName
string assemblyName = "MyAssemblyName"; // MyAssembly.FullName or MyAssembly.GetName().Name
string assemblyQualifiedName = Assembly.CreateQualifiedName(assemblyName , typeName);
Type myClassType = Type.GetType(assemblyQualifiedName);

The Version, Culture and PublicKeyToken are not required for assemblyName that's why you can use MyAssembly.GetName().Name.

About Type.GetType(String) :

If the type is in the currently executing assembly or in Mscorlib.dll, it is sufficient to supply the type name qualified by its namespace.

Try this method.

public static Type GetType(string typeName)
{
    var type = Type.GetType(typeName);
    if (type != null) return type;
    foreach (var a in AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies())
    {
        type = a.GetType(typeName);
        if (type != null)
            return type;
    }
    return null;
}

If it's a nested Type, you might be forgetting to transform a . to a +

Regardless, typeof( T).FullName will tell you what you should be saying

EDIT: BTW the usings (as I'm sure you know) are only directives to the compiler at compile time and cannot thus have any impact on the API call's success. (If you had project or assembly references, that could potentially have had influence - hence the information isnt useless, it just takes some filtering...)

For me, a "+" was the key! This is my class(it is a nested one) :

namespace PortalServices
{
public class PortalManagement : WebService
{
    public class Merchant
    {}
}
}

and this line of code worked:

Type type = Type.GetType("PortalServices.PortalManagement+Merchant");

Dictionary<string, Type> typeCache;
...
public static bool TryFindType(string typeName, out Type t) {
    lock (typeCache) {
        if (!typeCache.TryGetValue(typeName, out t)) {
            foreach (Assembly a in AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies()) {
                t = a.GetType(typeName);
                if (t != null)
                    break;
            }
            typeCache[typeName] = t; // perhaps null
        }
    }
    return t != null;
}

if your class is not in current assambly you must give qualifiedName and this code shows how to get qualifiedname of class

string qualifiedName = typeof(YourClass).AssemblyQualifiedName;

and then you can get type with qualifiedName

Type elementType = Type.GetType(qualifiedName);

You can also get the type without assembly qualified name but with the dll name also, for example:

Type myClassType = Type.GetType("TypeName,DllName");

I had the same situation and it worked for me. I needed an object of type "DataModel.QueueObject" and had a reference to "DataModel" so I got the type as follows:

Type type = Type.GetType("DataModel.QueueObject,DataModel");

The second string after the comma is the reference name (dll name).

I cheated. Since the types I want to create (by name) are all in In a dll I control, I just put a static method in the dll in the assembly that takes a simple name, and calls type.GetType from that context and returns the result.

The original purpose was so that the type could be specified by name in configuration data. I've since change the code so that the user specified a format to process. The format handler classes implement a interface that determines if the type can parse the specified format. I then use reflection to find types that implement the interface, and find one that handles the format. So now the configuration specifies a format name, a not a specific type. The reflection code can look at adjacent dlls and load, them so I have a sort poor man's plug-in architecture.

If the assembly is referenced and the Class visible :

typeof(namespace.a.b.ClassName)

GetType returns null because the type is not found, with typeof, the compiler may help you to find out the error.