Create an object knowing only the class name?

Question

I have a set of classes, each one is a different strategy to do the same work.

namespace BigCorp.SuperApp
{
    public class BaseClass { }
    public class          


        

Answer 1

Either use the assembly-qualified-name, or get hold of the Assembly and use Assembly.GetType(name). In this case, since you want the types in the config file, assembly-qualified is a valid way to go - but since you know all your types are in the same assembly:

Assembly assembly = typeof(SomeKnownType).Assembly; // in the same assembly!
Type type = assembly.GetType(name); // full name - i.e. with namespace (perhaps concatenate)
object obj = Activator.CreateInstance(type);

The static Type.GetType(string) has probing rules that often cause confusion... it looks at the calling assembly, and a few system assemblies - but not all loaded assemblies.