Casting string to type

Question

Is there a way to specify a type in runtime through casting a string with the types name? I hop my non-compiling code below can explain what i am trying to do. Let me know otherwise and ill try to explain it better.

var valueFromDropDownMenu = "MyClass";

List<Type.GetType(valueFromDropDownMenu)> dynamicList = 
  new List<Type.GetType(valueFromDropDownMenu) > (); 

// Code to iterate through objects and populate dynamicList 
// with all objects of correct type

What I am trying to do is to let the user choose what type of object I will process.

I am Using Unity3D which is a game dev framework and it uses a static method to load resources from files. These resources needs to be cast.

I'm trying to make a developer tool that lets the developer choose a specific type of resources to be loaded. So i need to do something like

var files = LoadAll("Path, ofType(UserSelectedType)); 

Is it possible?

Answer 1

The whole point of generics is to provide compile-time typing. Attempting to use generics in the manner you describe defeats the point.

It doesn't compile because you're attempting to mix runtime typing with compiletime typing.

Even if this did work, it would just add unnecessary overhead to using a simple List<object> which can then be queried at runtime for type information. (Note, compile-time is obviously always preferable for performance)

The code below will output a single line at the console.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace ConsoleApplication9
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {

            List<object> x = new List<object>();
            x.Add(new MyTypeA());
            x.Add(new MyTypeB());
            foreach (var itemsOfA in x.Where(o => o.GetType().Name == "MyTypeA"))
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Found a " + itemsOfA.GetType());
            }
        }
    }

    class MyTypeA { }
    class MyTypeB { }
}