how to get the default value of a type if the type is only known as System.Type?

Asked 2009-08-15T04:37:17.300

If I want a method that returns the default value of a given type and the method is generic I can return a default value like so:

public static T GetDefaultValue()
{
  return default(T);
}

Can I do something similar in case I have the type only as a System.Type object?

public static object GetDefaultValue(Type type)
{
  //???
}

c# generics default

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1 Answer

Since you really only have to worry about value types (reference types will just be null), you can use Activator.CreateInstance to call the default constructor on them.

public static object GetDefaultValue(Type type) {
   return type.IsValueType ? Activator.CreateInstance(type) : null;
}

Edit: Jon is (of course) correct. IsClass isn't exhaustive enough - it returns False if type is an interface.

answered 2009-08-15T04:58:57.007

how to get the default value of a type if the type is only known as System.Type?

1 Answer

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