Generating code — is there an easy way to get a proper string representation of nullable type?

Question

So I\'m building an application that is going to do a ton of code generation with both C# and VB output (depending on project settings).

I\'ve got a CodeTemplateEngi

Answer 1

You can do this using CodeDom's support for generic types and the GetTypeOutput method:

CodeTypeReference ctr;
if (/* you want to output this as nullable */)
{
  ctr = new CodeTypeReference(typeof(Nullable<>));
  ctr.TypeArguments.Add(new CodeTypeReference(typeName));
}
else
{
  ctr = new CodeTypeReference(typeName);
}
string typeName = codeDomProvider.GetTypeOutput(ctr);

This will respect language-specific type keywords such as C# int or VB Integer, though it will still give you System.Nullable<int> rather than int?.

Answer 2

There are two issues here:

1. System.Int32 has the C# alias int, which you prefer.
2. System.Nullable can be indicated using a ? symbol in C#, which you prefer.

There are no methods included with the .NET Framework to take these into account when converting the type name to a string. You are going to have to roll your own.