How do I get a string representation from a nullable type?

Question

Say I have something like

var T = Type.GetType("System.Nullable`1[[System.DateTime, mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089]]");

which is a nullable datetime.

T.FullName gives me:

"System.Nullable`1[[System.DateTime, mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089]]"

How can I extract DateTime? or Nullable<DateTime> as a string representation from the Type?

see question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/401681/how-can-i-get-the-correct-text-definition-of-a-generic-type-using-reflection; (this answer http://stackoverflow.com/a/6592598/1506454) — ASh, Sep 10 '15 at 10:23
I wrote a method for exactly this purpose 2 years ago (http://www.codeproject.com/Tips/621812/User-friendly-names-for-Types) but I really like the solution in the answer ASh pointed out! (http://stackoverflow.com/a/6592598/1506454) — Dennis_E, Sep 10 '15 at 10:45

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 10 '15 at 10:24

Maybe in this way:

var T = Type.GetType("System.Nullable`1[[System.DateTime, mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089]]");
Type nullableType = Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(T);
string typeName = nullableType != null ? nullableType.Name + "?" : T.Name;

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 10 '15 at 10:43

Type.FullName returns the full assembly qualified name for the generic arguments. But the ToString() method will print a much more friendly name, maybe this is what you want:

System.Nullable`1[System.DateTime]

Please note that if the generic arguments are not from the mscorlib library, the type name returned by ToString might not be able to be parsed by Type.GetType(string) method.

How do I get a string representation from a nullable type?

2 Answers2