How to instantiate a descendant UserControl?

Question

Here is the scenario. I have a bunch of UserControls that all inherit from MyBaseControl. I would like to instantiate a UserControl based on its name. For instance:

void foo(string NameOfControl) {
    MyBaseControl ctl = null;        
    ctl = CreateObject(NameOfControl);  // I am making stuff up here, 
                                        // CreateObject does not exist
}

How do i instantiate this UserControl based on its name. I could have a gigantic switch statement and that smells bad. All the UserControls, including their Base class, are in the same project and all have the same namespace.

Answer 1

The best way to do this would be to load the type via reflection. Since they are all in the same assembly/namespace, you can do this. Otherwise, you'd have to load the assembly separately. Also, it assumes an empty constructor.

MyBaseControl ctl = null;
ctl = (MyBaseControl) typeof(MyBaseControl).assembly.GetType(NameOfControl).GetConstructor(new Type[0]).Invoke(new object[0]);

If the constructor isn't an empty one, change the type/object arrays.

Answer 2

    void foo(string NameOfControl)
    {
        MyBaseControl ctl = null;
        ctl = (MyBaseControl) Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CreateInstance(typeof(MyBaseControl).Namespace + "." + NameOfControl);
    }

Above assumes that each of your derived control class as a default parameter-less constructor.