I would like to list all the sub classes of a given class name in a DLL using reflection in C#.

Question

Hi my requirement is something like this:

1. I would load an assembly from a specific location (LoadAssemlyFrom(DLL)).
2. Now I will provide class name to a method as a parameter and that method should return me all the sub classes list.

Something like below:

IList<T> GetAllSubClasses(string parentClassName)
{
......

return subclasses list;
}

Vulpes · Answer

First create a class library mydll.dll from the code below: public class ClassA {} public class ClassB : ClassA {} public class ClassC : ClassA {} public class ClassD : ClassC {} Now create a console app from the following code and place the dll in the executable's folder: using System; using System.Reflection; using System.Collections.Generic; class Test { static Assembly assembly; static void Main() { assembly = Assembly.LoadFrom(mydll.dll); IList list = GetAllSubClasses(ClassA); foreach(string typeName in list) Console.WriteLine(typeName); Console.ReadKey(); } static IList GetAllSubClasses(string parentClassName) { List list = new List (); foreach(Type t in assembly.GetTypes()) { if (t.BaseType.FullName == parentClassName) list.Add(t.FullName); } return list; } } The output should be: ClassB ClassC Notice that ClassD is not returned because whilst it ultimately derives from ClassA (via ClassC) it's not a direct sub-class of it.

Akkiraju Ivaturi · Answer

Thanks for the code.