I am trying to write a generic import routine that imports data into a business object and need some help on data conversion issue.



Example:



Say I have a datatable containing the data I want to import. Assume the column names in the import file match the business object's column names.



I have my customer object and want to populate it.



Dim loBO as New CustomerBO



For Each Row As DataRow In ImportFileDataTable.Rows



loBO.NewRow()

loBO.CurrentRow.Item("CompanyName") = Row.Item("CompanyName")



etc...



Next





This works fine but now I want to ensure the data from the import file converts to the appropriate type based on the business object. Example: The BO field may be integer but the data coming from the import datatable may be string... I want to convert this to the proper type.



I tried this...



Dim loType as Type

Dim loBO as New CustomerBO



For Each Row As DataRow In ImportFileDataTable.Rows



loBO.NewRow()



loType = GetType(loBO.CurrentRow.Item("CompanyName").GetType

loBO.CurrentRow.Item("CompanyName") = Ctype(Row.Item("CompanyName"),loType)



etc...



Next





Problem is 'loType' is not a valid variable for this statement... Is there anyway to dynamically set this type according to the data type on the business object without have to add a bunch of conditional statements?



Thanks,

Tim