Determine if a type is static

Question

Let's say I have a Type called type.

I want to determine if I can do this with my type (without actually doing this to each type):

If type is System.Windows.Point then I could do this:

Point point1 = new Point();

However if type is System.Environment then this will not fly:

Environment environment1 = new Environment(); //wrong

So if I am iterating through every visible type in an assembly how do I skip all the types that will fail to create an instance like the second one? I'm kind of new to reflection so I'm not that great with the terminology yet. Hopefully what I'm trying to do here is pretty clear.

Solution 1

static classes are declared abstract and sealed at the IL level. So, you can check IsAbstract property to handle both abstract classes and static classes in one go (for your use case).

However, abstract classes are not the only types you can't instantiate directly. You should check for things like interfaces (without the CoClass attribute) and types that don't have a constructor accessible by the calling code.

Solution 2

type.IsAbstract && type.IsSealed

This would be a sufficient check for C# since an abstract class cannot be sealed or static in C#. However, you'll need to be careful when dealing with CLR types from other languages.

Solution 3

you can search for public contructors like this,

Type t = typeof(Environment);
var c = t.GetConstructors(BindingFlags.Public);
if (!t.IsAbstract && c.Length > 0)
{
     //You can create instance
}

Or if you only interested in parameterless constructor you can use

Type t = typeof(Environment);
var c = t.GetConstructor(Type.EmptyTypes);
if (c != null && c.IsPublic && !t.IsAbstract )
{
     //You can create instance
}

Solution 4

Type t = typeof(System.GC);
Console.WriteLine(t.Attributes);
TypeAttributes attribForStaticClass = TypeAttributes.AutoLayout | TypeAttributes.AnsiClass | TypeAttributes.Class |
TypeAttributes.Public | TypeAttributes.Abstract | TypeAttributes.Sealed | TypeAttributes.BeforeFieldInit;
Console.WriteLine((t.Attributes == attribForStaticClass));

I guess, this should work.

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Comments

[mmx]

Note that an abstract class can have a public constructor. You can't necessarily create an instance of a class in the body of your if statement. You'll get MemberAccessException.

[Beaker]

Thanks for the answer, it would have taken me a long time to come up with this on my own.

[mhand]

I believe the only one unique to static classes is the TypeAttributes.BeforeFieldInit -- this is what I use to determine static classes. Checking IsAbstract and IsSealed also guarantees only static types but it's a more involved check.