[2.0] Get a type and coerce value to that type

[dee-u]

I have the ff. 'ugly' code:

private void InsertWhereParameter(WhereParameter whereParameter)
        {
            Type t = whereParameter.FieldValue.GetType();
            switch (t.ToString())
            {
                case "System.String":
                    _dataAccess.AddWhereParameter(whereParameter.FieldName, (String)whereParameter.FieldValue);
                    break;
                case "System.DateTime":
                    _dataAccess.AddWhereParameter(whereParameter.FieldName, (DateTime)whereParameter.FieldValue);
                    break;

Is there something I am missing that would make it work like...

Type t = whereParameter.FieldValue.GetType();
_dataAccess.AddWhereParameter(whereParameter.FieldName, (t)whereParameter.FieldValue);

TIA

[jmcilhinney]

What you're missing is that there's a difference between a data type and a Type object. A Type object is an instance of the Type class that represents a data type. It's not a data type itself. In order to cast a refernce as a particular type you MUST know the type you're casting too at compile time. The point of casting is to tell the compiler that an object is a specific type. If you don't know the type until run time then it's a bit late to be telling the compiler anything.

[dee-u]

So there is really no other way to achieve it other than what I already have?

[jmcilhinney]

There are other ways to do it but they'd all involve some sort of test, unless you actually pass the type in too. You could do that with a DbType value.