Reflection with a List

[MollyTheCoder]

I'm trying to find a cleaner way to reflectively get at the contents of my class that are lists of other classes:

class BigClass
{
public List<LittleClass1> LittleList1;
public List<LittleClass2> LittleList2;
public string BigString;
}

class LittleClass1
{
public string a;
public int b;
}

class LittleClass2 : LittleClass1
{
public string c;
}

To look into BigClass I use

foreach (FieldInfo fi in BigClass.GetFields())
{
if (fi.GetValue(bigClassInstance).ToString().StartsWith("System.Collections.Generic.List"))
{
//must be a list
}
}

It finds the lists, and I can process them from there, but there must be a better way.

[PIEBALDconsult]

Try the is and as operators rather than string comparisons. And probably look for IEnumerable rather than List.

[MollyTheCoder]

Thank you. I'll put up a big sign on my desk with "is" and "as" and ToString() so I don't have to ask this again.

[PIEBALDconsult]

Spread the word.