Using Reflection to create a DataTable from a Class?

Question

I\'ve just learned about Generics and I\'m wondering whether I can use it to dynamically build datatables from my classes.

Or I might be missing the point here. Here

Answer 1

you can convert the object to xml then load the xml document to a dataset, then extract the first table out of the data set. However i dont see how this be practical as it infers creating streams, datasets & datatables and using converstions to create the xml document.

I guess for proof of concept i can understand why. Here is an example, but somewhat hesitant to use it.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Data;
using System.Xml.Serialization;

namespace Generics
{
public class Dog
{
    public string Breed { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public int legs { get; set; }
    public bool tail { get; set; }
}

class Program
{
    public static DataTable CreateDataTable(Object[] arr)
    {
        XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(arr.GetType());
        System.IO.StringWriter sw = new System.IO.StringWriter();
        serializer.Serialize(sw, arr);
        System.Data.DataSet ds = new System.Data.DataSet();
        System.Data.DataTable dt = new System.Data.DataTable();
        System.IO.StringReader reader = new System.IO.StringReader(sw.ToString());

        ds.ReadXml(reader);
        return ds.Tables[0];
    }

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Dog Killer = new Dog();
        Killer.Breed = "Maltese Poodle";
        Killer.legs = 3;
        Killer.tail = false;
        Killer.Name = "Killer";

        Dog [] array_dog = new Dog[5];
        Dog [0] = killer;
        Dog [1] = killer;
        Dog [2] = killer;
        Dog [3] = killer;
        Dog [4] = killer;

        DataTable dogTable = new DataTable();
        dogTable = CreateDataTable(array_dog);

        // continue here

        }      
    }
}

look the following example here