How to find out if an object's type implements IEnumerable where X derives from Base using Reflection

Question

Give a base class Base, I want to write a method Test, like this:

private static bool Test(IEnumerable enumerable)
{
...
}

suc

Answer 1

You can use the Type.FindInterfaces to filter out all the IEnumerable<> interfaces the type implements and check the generic parameters (through Type.GetGenericArguments) on each of them to see if it's Base or inherits from Base.

Update: Here's some sample code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Reflection;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Base
    {
        string Prop { get; set;}
    }

    class A : Base
    {
    }

    class Test : List
    {
    }

    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            try
            {
                Test test = new Test();
                Type myType = test.GetType();

                //string filterCriteria = "IEnumerable`1";
                Type typeA = Type.GetType("ConsoleApplication1.A");
                string filterCriteria = "System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable`1[[" +
                                        typeA.AssemblyQualifiedName +
                                        "]]";

                // Specify the TypeFilter delegate that compares the 
                // interfaces against filter criteria.
                TypeFilter myFilter = new TypeFilter(MyInterfaceFilter);
                Type[] myInterfaces = myType.FindInterfaces(myFilter,
                    filterCriteria);
                if (myInterfaces.Length > 0)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("\n{0} implements the interface {1}.",
                        myType, filterCriteria);
                    for (int j = 0; j < myInterfaces.Length; j++)
                        Console.WriteLine("Interfaces supported: {0}.",
                            myInterfaces[j].ToString());
                }
                else
                    Console.WriteLine(
                        "\n{0} does not implement the interface {1}.",
                        myType, filterCriteria);
            }
            catch (ArgumentNullException e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("ArgumentNullException: " + e.Message);
            }
            catch (TargetInvocationException e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("TargetInvocationException: " + e.Message);
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Exception: " + e.Message);
            }
        }

        public static bool MyInterfaceFilter(Type typeObj, Object criteriaObj)
        {
            // This will be true, if criteria is
            // System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable`1[[ConsoleApplication1.A, ConsoleApplication1, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null]]
            if (typeObj.FullName == criteriaObj.ToString())
                return true;
            // This will be true, if criteria is
            // IEnumerable`1
            // You will still need to check the generic parameters on the original type
                // (generic parameters are not exposed on Type instances for interfaces
            else if (typeObj.Name == criteriaObj.ToString())
                return true;
            else
                return false;
        }
    }
}