Helpful extension methods for System.Type

TypeExtensions.cs

using System;

namespace Example
{
    public static class TypeExtensions
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Returns a default value for a given Type at run-time.
        /// </summary>
        public static object GetDefaultValue(this Type type)
        {
            // https://stackoverflow.com/a/2686723/483776
            if (type.IsValueType)
            {
                return Activator.CreateInstance(type);
            }
            else
            {
                return null;
            }
        }

        public static bool CanDefaultConstruct(this Type type)
        {
            return !type.IsAbstract && type.HasParameterlessConstructor();
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Gets a value indicating if the given type has a parameterless constructor.
        /// True if it has a parameterless constructor, otherwise false.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="type">The type.</param>
        public static bool HasParameterlessConstructor(this Type type)
        {
            // https://github.com/JoshClose/CsvHelper/blob/4cf576ec5524f73fc7894232b23a5969acc48e46/src/CsvHelper/ReflectionExtensions.cs
            return type.GetConstructor(Array.Empty<Type>()) != null;
        }
    }
}