Obtaining reference to Class instance by string name - VB.NET

Question

Is it possible using Reflection or some other method to obtain a reference to a specific class instance from the name of that class instance?

For example the framewo

Answer 1

I don´t know if I´ve understood you well, but my answer is yes, you can do it by reflection. You´ll need to import System.Reflection namespace.

Here is an example:

    ' Note that I´m in namespace ConsoleApplication1
    Dim NameOfMyClass As String = "ConsoleApplication1.MyClassA"
    Dim NameOfMyPropertyInMyClass As String = "MyFieldInClassA"

    ' Note that you are getting a NEW instance of MyClassA
    Dim MyInstance As Object = Activator.CreateInstance(Type.GetType(NameOfMyClass))

    ' A PropertyInfo object will give you access to the value of your desired field
    Dim MyProperty As PropertyInfo = MyInstance.GetType().GetProperty(NameOfMyPropertyInMyClass)

Once you have MyProperty, uou can get the value of your property, just like this:

MyProperty.GetValue(MyInstance, Nothing)

Passing to the method the instace of what you want to know the value.

Tell me if this resolve your question, please :-)

EDIT

This would be ClassA.vb

Public Class MyClassA

    Private _myFieldInClassA As String

    Public Property MyFieldInClassA() As String
        Get
            Return _myFieldInClassA
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            _myFieldInClassA = value
        End Set
    End Property

End Class