In C#, how to instantiate a passed generic type inside a method?

How can I instantiate the type T inside my InstantiateType<T> method below?

I'm getting the error: 'T' is a 'type parameter' but is used like a 'variable'.:

(SCROLL DOWN FOR REFACTORED ANSWER)

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace TestGeneric33
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Container container = new Container();
            Console.WriteLine(container.InstantiateType<Customer>("Jim", "Smith"));
            Console.WriteLine(container.InstantiateType<Employee>("Joe", "Thompson"));
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }

    public class Container
    {
        public T InstantiateType<T>(string firstName, string lastName) where T : IPerson
        {
            T obj = T();
            obj.FirstName(firstName);
            obj.LastName(lastName);
            return obj;
        }

    }

    public interface IPerson
    {
        string FirstName { get; set; }
        string LastName { get; set; }
    }

    public class Customer : IPerson
    {
        public string FirstName { get; set; }
        public string LastName { get; set; }
        public string Company { get; set; }
    }

    public class Employee : IPerson
    {
        public string FirstName { get; set; }
        public string LastName { get; set; }
        public int EmployeeNumber { get; set; }
    }
}

REFACTORED ANSWER:

Thanks for all the comments, they got me on the right track, this is what I wanted to do:

using System;

namespace TestGeneric33
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Container container = new Container();
            Customer customer1 = container.InstantiateType<Customer>("Jim", "Smith");
            Employee employee1 = container.InstantiateType<Employee>("Joe", "Thompson");
            Console.WriteLine(PersonDisplayer.SimpleDisplay(customer1));
            Console.WriteLine(PersonDisplayer.SimpleDisplay(employee1));
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }

    public class Container
    {
        public T InstantiateType<T>(string firstName, string lastName) where T : IPerson, new()
        {
            T obj = new T();
            obj.FirstName = firstName;
            obj.LastName = lastName;
            return obj;
        }
    }

    public interface IPerson
    {
        string FirstName { get; set; }
        string LastName { get; set; }
    }

    public class PersonDisplayer
    {
        private IPerson _person;

        public PersonDisplayer(IPerson person)
        {
            _person = person;
        }

        public string SimpleDisplay()
        {
            return String.Format("{1}, {0}", _person.FirstName, _person.LastName);
        }

        public static string SimpleDisplay(IPerson person)
        {
            PersonDisplayer personDisplayer = new PersonDisplayer(person);
            return personDisplayer.SimpleDisplay();
        }
    }

    public class Customer : IPerson
    {
        public string FirstName { get; set; }
        public string LastName { get; set; }
        public string Company { get; set; }
    }

    public class Employee : IPerson
    {
        public string FirstName { get; set; }
        public string LastName { get; set; }
        public int EmployeeNumber { get; set; }
    }
}

Solution 1:

Declare your method like this:

public string InstantiateType<T>(string firstName, string lastName) 
              where T : IPerson, new()

Notice the additional constraint at the end. Then create a new instance in the method body:

T obj = new T();    

Solution 2:

Couple of ways.

Without specifying the type must have a constructor:

T obj = default(T); //which will produce null for reference types

With a constructor:

T obj = new T();

But this requires the clause:

where T : new()

Solution 3:

To extend on the answers above, adding where T:new() constraint to a generic method will require T to have a public, parameterless constructor.

If you want to avoid that - and in a factory pattern you sometimes force the others to go through your factory method and not directly through the constructor - then the alternative is to use reflection (Activator.CreateInstance...) and keep the default constructor private. But this comes with a performance penalty, of course.

Solution 4:

you want new T(), but you'll also need to add , new() to the where spec for the factory method

Solution 5:

A bit old but for others looking for a solution, perhaps this could be of interest: http://daniel.wertheim.se/2011/12/29/c-generic-factory-with-support-for-private-constructors/

Two solutions. One using Activator and one using Compiled Lambdas.

//Person has private ctor
var person = Factory<Person>.Create(p => p.Name = "Daniel");

public static class Factory<T> where T : class 
{
    private static readonly Func<T> FactoryFn;

    static Factory()
    {
        //FactoryFn = CreateUsingActivator();

        FactoryFn = CreateUsingLambdas();
    }

    private static Func<T> CreateUsingActivator()
    {
        var type = typeof(T);

        Func<T> f = () => Activator.CreateInstance(type, true) as T;

        return f;
    }

    private static Func<T> CreateUsingLambdas()
    {
        var type = typeof(T);

        var ctor = type.GetConstructor(
            BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.CreateInstance |
            BindingFlags.NonPublic,
            null, new Type[] { }, null);

        var ctorExpression = Expression.New(ctor);
        return Expression.Lambda<Func<T>>(ctorExpression).Compile();
    }

    public static T Create(Action<T> init)
    {
        var instance = FactoryFn();

        init(instance);

        return instance;
    }
}