Passing a type instead of a value when using reflection

Question

I'm trying to use reflection to manually build a ts file, but can't seem to figure out how to do it the correct way. I have a property which will be a list of enum class names (types). For each of these I will call a method with creates a ts file. Method creating files (start):

public static bool CreateJsonFiles<T>(object item, string filePath = null)
{
    try
    {
        var type = item.GetType();
        var values = Enum.GetValues(type).Cast<T>();
        if (filePath == null)
        {
            return false;
        }

Beforehand I used the T generic parameter, by calling the function like

EnumsBuilder.CreateJsonFiles<LocatieType>($"{Server.MapPath("/")}");

The problem is that I wish to call the method for multiple value now (in an iteration). I've tried two things that both do not work:

1. Change generic method to remove parameter, and use typeof(item):

   var type = item.GetType();
   var values = Enum.GetValues(type).Cast<type >();
   

   This gives an error on the Cast function.

2. Try to obtain the type of the items in the list in the iteration and try to pass this along:

   public static List<Type> EnumList { get; set; }
   
    public static void BuildEnums(string serverPath)
    {
       foreach (var item in EnumList)
       {
           var type = item.GetType();         
           CreateJsonFiles<type>(type, serverPath);
       } 
    }
   

   This also gives an error, because this is not allowed either.

Could anyone explain me the correct way to do this?

Answer 1

I doubt why you would need the Cast at all. The cast will not change the actual type of the data (unless you use conversion operators, which I doubt here). It will only change the type of the variable.

I guess you can use just this:

var values = Enum.GetValues(type);

And for your CreateJsonFiles method, since you don't actually need the generic type parameter, you can make it non-generic instead.