Methodology, CreateDelegate, and General Methods

Question

Thanks Jon Skeet answer in this question I have the following working:

public delegate BaseItem GetItemDelegate(Guid itemID);

public static class Lists
{
  public static GetItemDelegate GetItemDelegateForType(Type derivedType)
  {
    MethodInfo method = typeof(Lists).GetMethod("GetItem");
    method = method.MakeGenericMethod(new Type[] { derivedType });
    return (GetItemDelegate)Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(GetItemDelegate), method);
  }

  public static T GetItem<T>(Guid itemID) where T : class { // returns an item of type T ... }
}

public class DerivedItem : BaseItem { }

// I can call it like so:
GetItemDelegate getItem = Lists.GetItemDelegateForType(typeof(DerivedItem));
DerivedItem myItem = getItem(someID); // this works great

When I try to apply the same thing to a method with a different return type and overloads (these are the only differences that I can come up with), I get the annoying "ArgumentException: Target Method Binding Error". when called CreateDelegate. Below is a working example that gets an error, just copy / paste into the console application.

public delegate IEnumerable<BaseItem> GetListDelegate();

public class BaseItem { }
public class DerivedItem : BaseItem { }

public static class Lists
{
  public static GetListDelegate GetListDelegateForType(Type itemType)
  {
    MethodInfo method = typeof(Lists).GetMethod("GetList", Type.EmptyTypes); // get the overload with no parameters
    method = method.MakeGenericMethod(new Type[] { itemType });
    return (GetListDelegate)Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(GetListDelegate), method);
  }

  // this is the one I want a delegate to, hence the Type.EmptyTypes above
  public static IEnumerable<T> GetList<T>() where T : class { return new List<T>(0); }
  // not the one I want a delegate to; included for illustration
  public static IEnumerable<T> GetList<T>(int param) where T : class { return new List<T>(0); }

  public static Type GetItemType()
  { // this could return any type derived from BaseItem
    return typeof(DerivedItem);
  }
}

class Program
{
  static void Main(string[] args)
  {
    Type itemType = Lists.GetItemType();
    GetListDelegate getList = Lists.GetListDelegateForType(itemType);
    IEnumerable<BaseItem> myList = (IEnumerable<BaseItem>)getList();
  }
}

As mentioned above, the only differences that I see are the following:

• Different Type of Return Value ( Tworks, IEnumerable<T>does not) [EDIT: this is wrong, the first version uses BaseItem, not T; oops]
• (GetItem , GetList , GetList()

Update1: . (, IEnumerable<BaseItem>), , / . GetList, ? , T BaseItem, , .

public static IEnumerable<BaseItem> GetList<T>() where T : class

"" . , , params, . ( T undefined, where):

public delegate IEnumerable<T> GetListDelegate();

Answer 1

, IEnumerable. . , , . .

// declare this as non-generic
public delegate IEnumerable GetListDelegate();

// do some cast-fu to get the list into a workable form
List<BaseItem> myList = getList().Cast<BaseItem>().ToList();

myList.Sort() , .

Answer 2

, , , .

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Reflection;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    public delegate IEnumerable<BaseItem> GetListDelegate();

    public class BaseItem { }
    public class DerivedItem : BaseItem { }

    public static class Lists
    {
        public static GetListDelegate GetListDelegateForType(Type derivedType)
        {
            MethodInfo method = typeof(Lists).GetMethod("GetList", Type.EmptyTypes); // get the overload with no parameters
            method = method.MakeGenericMethod(new[] { derivedType });
            return (GetListDelegate)Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(GetListDelegate), method); // *** this throws an exception ***
        }

        // this is the one I want a delegate to, hence the Type.EmptyTypes above
        public static IEnumerable<T> GetList<T>() where T : class
        {// returns a collection of T items ... 
            return new T[0];
        }

        // not the one I want a delegate to; included for illustration, maybe my different GetMethod() is my problem?
        public static IEnumerable<T> GetList<T>(int param) where T : class
        { // returns a collection of T items ... 
            return new T[0];
        }
    }

    public class GenericDelegate
    {
        public static void Test()
        {

            // I would call it like so, but first line gets exception, where indicated above
            GetListDelegate getList = Lists.GetListDelegateForType(typeof(BaseItem));
            IEnumerable<BaseItem> myList = getList();
        }
    }
}

, . .

public delegate IEnumerable<BaseItem> GetListDelegate();

GetListDelegate getList = Lists.GetListDelegateForType(typeof(DerivedList));
IEnumerable<DerivedList> myList = getList();

IEnumerable, IEnumerable. # 3.5. # 4, BaseItem/DerivedList , ( , , ).