How to use Reflection

[PGilbert]

Looks like there is 3 ways to obtain information on a .net object using reflection:

⎕using←'' 'System' 'System.Reflection' 'System.Windows.Controls,WPF/PresentationFramework.dll'
dt←⎕NEW DateTime ⎕ts


Method no 1: System.Object.GetType

(dt.GetType.GetProperties ⍬).Name
Date Day DayOfWeek DayOfYear Hour Kind Millisecond Minute Month Now UtcNow Second Ticks TimeOfDay Today Year

This method seems to work all the time for classes that have been instantiated (⎕NC=9.2)

Method no 2: System.Type.GetType

((System.Type.GetType(⊂'System.DateTime')).GetProperties ⍬).Name
Date Day DayOfWeek DayOfYear Hour Kind Millisecond Minute Month Now UtcNow Second Ticks TimeOfDay Today Year

This method seems to work for classes not instantiated (⎕NC=9.6). However it does not work for a Button:

((System.Type.GetType(⊂'System.Windows.Controls.Button')).GetProperties ⍬).Name
VALUE ERROR: No result was provided when the context expected one
((System.Type.GetType(⊂'System.Windows.Controls.Button')).GetProperties ⍬).Name
∧

Method no 3: typeof C# operator

Question 1: Does anyone knows why method #2 does not work all time ?

Question 2: Is there an equivalent of the typeof C# operator in Dyalog Apl ?

Thanks in advance,

[Vince|Dyalog]

Hi Pierre,

I'll ask my colleague to have a look at your question when he returns and we will get back to you.

Regards,

Vince

[JohnD|Dyalog]

As per:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/w3f99sx1(v=vs.110).aspx

For the typeName parameter:

"The assembly-qualified name of the type to get. See AssemblyQualifiedName. If the type is in the currently executing assembly or in Mscorlib.dll, it is sufficient to supply the type name qualified by its namespace."

The currently executing assembly will be our bridge assembly. So I reckon it will work for those types in mscorlib.dll (and our bridge), but not elsewhere. For types in other assemblies you'll need the full "AssemblyQualifiedName".

Best Regards
John Daintree.

[PGilbert]

Thanks John and Vince.