Tim Van Wassenhove

Passionate geek, interested in Technology. Proud father of two

21 Jul 2010

Quick reminder about the workings of Type.IsAssignableFrom

Here is a quick reminder about the workings of Type.IsAssignableFrom

class Fruit {}
class Banana : Fruit {}

[Test]
public void CanAssignBananaToFruit()
{
	var fruit = typeof (Fruit);
	var banana = typeof (Banana);
	Assert.IsTrue(fruit.IsAssignableFrom(banana));
}

[Test]
public void CanNotAssignFruitToBanana()
{
	var fruit = typeof(Fruit);
	var banana = typeof(Banana);
	Assert.IsFalse(banana.IsAssignableFrom(fruit));
}

I really hate this API because it always seems backward to me. Here is how i really want to use it

Assert.IsTrue(banana.CanBeAssignedTo(fruit));
Assert.IsFalse(fruit.CanBeAssignedTo(banana));

With the aid of an extension method we can easily achieve this

public static bool CanBeAssignedTo(this Type sourceType, Type destinationType)
{
	return destinationType.IsAssignableFrom(sourceType);
}