When do you use reflection? Patterns/anti-patterns

Question

I understand the reflection API (in c#) but I am not sure in what situation would I use it. What are some patterns - anti-patterns for using reflection?

Answer 1

I'm not about to drop any patterns, but I would suggest that it's a good idea to avoid reflection until you actually need it. It's especially useful for interop and extensibility situations where you cannot control ahead of time the type of an object.