[c#] Cast to generic type in C#

I have a Dictionary to map a certain type to a certain generic object for that type. For example:

typeof(LoginMessage) maps to MessageProcessor<LoginMessage>

Now the problem is to retrieve this generic object at runtime from the Dictionary. Or to be more specific: To cast the retrieved object to the specific generic type.

I need it to work something like this:

Type key = message.GetType();
MessageProcessor<key> processor = messageProcessors[key] as MessageProcessor<key>;

Hope there is a easy solution to this.

Edit: I do not want to use Ifs and switches. Due to performance issues I cannot use reflection of some sort either.

The answer of @DanielPlaisted before generally works, but the generic method must be public or one must use BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance! Couldn't post it as a comment for lack of reputation.

You can write a method that takes the type as a generic parameter:

void GenericProcessMessage<T>(T message)
{
    MessageProcessor<T> processor = messageProcessors[typeof(T)]
        as MessageProcessor<T>;

    //  Call method processor or whatever you need to do
}

Then you need a way to call the method with the correct generic argument. You can do this with reflection:

public void ProcessMessage(object message)
{
    Type messageType = message.GetType();
    MethodInfo method = this.GetType().GetMethod("GenericProcessMessage");
    MethodInfo closedMethod = method.MakeGenericMethod(messageType);
    closedMethod.Invoke(this, new object[] {message});
}

To convert any type object to a generic type T, the trick is to first assign to an object of any higher type then cast that to the generic type.

object temp = otherTypeObject;
T result = (T)temp;

I had a similar problem. I have a class;

Action<T>

which has a property of type T.

How do I get the property when I don't know T? I can't cast to Action<> unless I know T.

SOLUTION:

Implement a non-generic interface;

public interface IGetGenericTypeInstance
{
    object GenericTypeInstance();
}

Now I can cast the object to IGetGenericTypeInstance and GenericTypeInstance will return the property as type object.

Please see if following solution works for you. The trick is to define a base processor interface which takes a base type of message.

interface IMessage
{
}

class LoginMessage : IMessage
{
}

class LogoutMessage : IMessage
{
}

class UnknownMessage : IMessage
{
}

interface IMessageProcessor
{
    void PrcessMessageBase(IMessage msg);
}

abstract class MessageProcessor<T> : IMessageProcessor where T : IMessage
{
    public void PrcessMessageBase(IMessage msg)
    {
        ProcessMessage((T)msg);
    }

    public abstract void ProcessMessage(T msg);

}

class LoginMessageProcessor : MessageProcessor<LoginMessage>
{
    public override void ProcessMessage(LoginMessage msg)
    {
        System.Console.WriteLine("Handled by LoginMsgProcessor");
    }
}

class LogoutMessageProcessor : MessageProcessor<LogoutMessage>
{
    public override void ProcessMessage(LogoutMessage msg)
    {
        System.Console.WriteLine("Handled by LogoutMsgProcessor");
    }
}

class MessageProcessorTest
{
    /// <summary>
    /// IMessage Type and the IMessageProcessor which would process that type.
    /// It can be further optimized by keeping IMessage type hashcode
    /// </summary>
    private Dictionary<Type, IMessageProcessor> msgProcessors = 
                                new Dictionary<Type, IMessageProcessor>();
    bool processorsLoaded = false;

    public void EnsureProcessorsLoaded()
    {
        if(!processorsLoaded)
        {
            var processors =
                from processorType in Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetTypes()
                where processorType.IsClass && !processorType.IsAbstract &&
                      processorType.GetInterface(typeof(IMessageProcessor).Name) != null
                select Activator.CreateInstance(processorType);

            foreach (IMessageProcessor msgProcessor in processors)
            {
                MethodInfo processMethod = msgProcessor.GetType().GetMethod("ProcessMessage");
                msgProcessors.Add(processMethod.GetParameters()[0].ParameterType, msgProcessor);
            }

            processorsLoaded = true;
        }
    }

    public void ProcessMessages()
    {
        List<IMessage> msgList = new List<IMessage>();
        msgList.Add(new LoginMessage());
        msgList.Add(new LogoutMessage());
        msgList.Add(new UnknownMessage());

        foreach (IMessage msg in msgList)
        {
            ProcessMessage(msg);
        }
    }

    public void ProcessMessage(IMessage msg)
    {
        EnsureProcessorsLoaded();
        IMessageProcessor msgProcessor = null;
        if(msgProcessors.TryGetValue(msg.GetType(), out msgProcessor))
        {
            msgProcessor.PrcessMessageBase(msg);
        }
        else
        {
            System.Console.WriteLine("Processor not found");
        }
    }

    public static void Test()
    {
        new MessageProcessorTest().ProcessMessages();
    }
}

I struggled to solve a similar problem around data table classes instead of messages. The root issue mentioned above of casting a non-generic version of the class to a derived generic version was the same.

In order to allow injection into a portable class library which did not support database libraries, I introduced a set of interface classes, with the intent that I could pass a type and get a matching generic. It ended up needing to implement a generic method.

// Interface for injection
public interface IDatabase
{
    // Original, non-functional signature:
    IDatatable<object> GetDataTable(Type dataType);

    // Functional method using a generic method:
    IDatatable<T> GetDataTable<T>();
}

And this the whole implementation using the generic method above.

The generic class that will be cast from a dictionary.

// Non-generic base class allows listing tables together
abstract class Datatable
{
    Datatable(Type storedClass)
    {
      StoredClass = storedClass;
    }

    Type StoredClass { get; private set; }
}

// Generic inheriting class
abstract class Datatable<T>: Datatable, IDatatable<T>
{
    protected Datatable()
        :base(typeof(T))
    {
    }
}

This is the class that stores the generic class and casts it to satisfy the generic method in the interface

class Database
{
    // Dictionary storing the classes using the non-generic base class
    private Dictionary<Type, Datatable> _tableDictionary;

    protected Database(List<Datatable> tables)
    {
        _tableDictionary = new Dictionary<Type, Datatable>();
        foreach (var table in tables)
        {
            _tableDictionary.Add(table.StoredClass, table);
        }
    }

    // Interface implementation, casts the generic
    public IDatatable<T> GetDataTable<T>()
    {
        Datatable table = null;

        _tableDictionary.TryGetValue(typeof(T), out table);

        return table as IDatatable<T>;
    }
}

And finally the calling of the interface method.

IDatatable<CustomerAccount> table = _database.GetDataTable<CustomerAccount>();

As mentioned, you cannot cast it directly. One possible solution is to have those generic types inherit from a non-generic interface, in which case you can still invoke methods on it without reflection. Using reflection, you can pass the mapped object to any method expecting it, then the cast will be performed for you. So if you have a method called Accept expecting a MessageProcessor as a parameter, then you can find it and invoke it dynamically.

This is simply not allowed:

Type key = message.GetType();
MessageProcessor<key> processor = messageProcessors[key] as MessageProcessor<key>;

You cannot get a generic type as a variable value.

You'd have to do a switch or something:

Type key = message.GetType();
if (key == typeof(Foo))
{
    MessageProcessor<Foo> processor = (MessageProcessor<Foo>)messageProcessors[key];
    // Do stuff with processor
}
else if (key == typeof(Bar))
{
    MessageProcessor<bar> processor = (MessageProcessor<Bar>)messageProcessors[key];
    // Do stuff with processor
}
...

Type type = typeof(MessageProcessor<>).MakeGenericType(key);

That's the best you can do, however without actually knowing what type it is, there's really not much more you can do with it.

EDIT: I should clarify. I changed from var type to Type type. My point is, now you can do something like this:

object obj = Activator.CreateInstance(type);

obj will now be the correct type, but since you don't know what type "key" is at compile time, there's no way to cast it and do anything useful with it.

The following seems to work as well, and it's a little bit shorter than the other answers:

T result = (T)Convert.ChangeType(otherTypeObject, typeof(T));

    public delegate void MessageProcessor<T>(T msg) where T : IExternalizable;


    virtual public void OnRecivedMessage(IExternalizable msg)
    {
        Type type = msg.GetType();
        ArrayList list = processors.Get(type);
        if (list != null)
        {
            object[] args = new object[]{msg};
            for (int i = list.Count - 1; i >= 0; --i)
            {
                Delegate e = (Delegate)list[i];
                e.Method.Invoke(e.Target, args);
            }
        }
    }

You can't do that. You could try telling your problem from a more high level point of view (i.e. what exactly do you want to accomplish with the casted variable) for a different solution.

You could go with something like this:

 public abstract class Message { 
     // ...
 }
 public class Message<T> : Message {
 }

 public abstract class MessageProcessor {
     public abstract void ProcessMessage(Message msg);
 }
 public class SayMessageProcessor : MessageProcessor {
     public override void ProcessMessage(Message msg) {
         ProcessMessage((Message<Say>)msg);
     }
     public void ProcessMessage(Message<Say> msg) {
         // do the actual processing
     }
 }

 // Dispatcher logic:
 Dictionary<Type, MessageProcessor> messageProcessors = {
    { typeof(Say), new SayMessageProcessor() },
    { typeof(string), new StringMessageProcessor() }
 }; // properly initialized

 messageProcessors[msg.GetType().GetGenericArguments()[0]].ProcessMessage(msg);