System.Activator (class)

System.Activator allows to dynamically create types, given an instance of System.Type.

This class contains two methods: CreateInstance and CreateInstanceFrom (although with quite some overloads).

Example

The following simple C# example tries to demonstrate how Activator might be used.

using System;

namespace Example {

   class XYZ {

      public int    num;
      public string txt;

      public XYZ() {
         num = 42;
         txt ="Hello World";
      }

      public XYZ(int num_, string txt_) {
         num = num_;
         txt = txt_;
      }

   }

   class Prg {

      static void Main() {
         Type   typ = Type.GetType("Example.XYZ");

         if (typ == null) {
            Console.WriteLine("Could not create Example.XYZ");
            return;
         }

         Object obj1 = Activator.CreateInstance(typ);
         Object obj2 = Activator.CreateInstance(typ, new object[] {99, "Foo bar baz"});

         Console.WriteLine("  num = {0}, txt = {1}", (obj1 as XYZ).num, (obj1 as XYZ).txt);
         Console.WriteLine("  num = {0}, txt = {1}", (obj2 as XYZ).num, (obj2 as XYZ).txt);
      }

   }
}

Github repository .NET-API, path: /System/Activator/intro.cs

When executed, this sample prints

num = 42, txt = Hello World
num = 99, txt = Foo bar baz