Reflection over inherited generic types

I'm facing a problem with reflection in c# and I can't find the answer.

I have a class that inherits from a generic type, and I'm trying to retrieve the type of T from this class, but it turns out that I can't!

Here is a example:

class Products : List<Product>
{}

The problem is that at runtime I don't know the type of T. So I tried to get the type like this:

Type itemsType = destObject.GetType().GetGenericArguments()[0]

It didn't work out.

Here is my method:

public static object Deserialize(Type destType, XmlNode xmlNode)
    {         
        object destObject = Activator.CreateInstance(destType);

        foreach (PropertyInfo property in destType.GetProperties())
            foreach (object att in property.GetCustomAttributes(false))
                if (att is XmlAttributeAttribute)
                    property.SetValue(destObject, xmlNode.Attributes[property.Name].Value, null);
                else if (att is XmlNodeAttribute)
                {
                    object retObject = Deserialize(property.PropertyType, xmlNode.Nodes[property.Name]);
             开发者_如何学JAVA       property.SetValue(destObject, retObject, null);
                }

        if (destObject is IList)
        {
            Type itemsType = destObject.GetType().GetGenericArguments()[0];
            foreach (XmlNode xmlChildNode in xmlNode.Nodes)
            {
                object retObject = Deserialize(itemsType, xmlNode);
                ((IList)destObject).Add(retObject);
            }
        }

        return destObject;
    }        

The idea is to read an xml file and transform it in an object:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<SETTINGS>
  <PRODUCTS>
    <PRODUCT NAME="ANY" VERSION="ANY" ISCURRENT="TRUE" />
    <PRODUCT NAME="TEST1" VERSION="ANY" ISCURRENT="FALSE" />
    <PRODUCT NAME="TEST2" VERSION="ANY" ISCURRENT="FALSE" />
  </PRODUCTS>
  <DISTRIBUTIONS>
    <DISTRIBUTION NAME="5.32.22" />
  </DISTRIBUTIONS>
</SETTINGS>

in this case the node PRODUCTS would be my collection that inherits from List

any ideas on how to do this?

tks guys

The Products class isn't generic, so GetGenericArguments doesn't return anything.

You need to get the generic arguments of the base type, like this:

Type itemType = destObject.GetType().BaseType.GetGenericArguments()[0];

However, this is not resilient; if an intermediary non-generic base type is introduced, it will fail.
Instead, you should find the type parameter of the IList<T> implementation.

For example:

Type listImplementation = destObject.GetType().GetInterface(typeof(IList<>).Name);
if (listImplementation != null) {
    Type itemType = listImplementation.GetGenericArguments()[0];
    ...
}

If you're just trying to figure out what the type of an IList is, you should use something like this:

Type itemsType = destType.GetInterface(typeof(IList<>).Name).GetGenericArguments()[0];

Here's how you would use it in code:

var interface = destType.GetInterface(typeof(IList<>).Name);
var destList = destObject as IList;
// make sure that the destination is both IList and IList<T>
if (interface != null && destList != null)
{
    Type itemsType = interface.GetGenericArguments()[0];
    foreach (XmlNode xmlChildNode in xmlNode.Nodes) 
    { 
        object retObject = Deserialize(itemsType, xmlNode); 
        destList.Add(retObject); 
    } 
}