Why can't I get a meaningful exception with Activator.CreateInstan

[Guest]

I have a class where I throw an exception in the constructor like this

class Foo
{
Foo constructor
{
throw new Exception("custom exception")
}
}

I create an instance of this class with Activator.CreateInstance in a try
catch block

try
{
Activator.CreateInstance(typeofFoo)
}
catch (e)
{
}

When I inspect this exception, it is a reflection exception, not my custom
exception that I threw from inside the class constructor. Is there something
I can do to get access to my exception, instead of the reflection exception
created by the framework. Inspecting the stack trace shows the origin of the
error to be Activator.CreateInstance, where it should be in the Foo
constructor.

 

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

I have a class where I throw an exception in the constructor like this

class Foo
{
Foo constructor
{
throw new Exception("custom exception")
}
}

I create an instance of this class with Activator.CreateInstance in a try
catch block

try
{
Activator.CreateInstance(typeofFoo)
}
catch (e)
{
}

When I inspect this exception, it is a reflection exception, not my custom
exception that I threw from inside the class constructor. Is there something
I can do to get access to my exception, instead of the reflection exception
created by the framework. Inspecting the stack trace shows the origin of the
error to be Activator.CreateInstance, where it should be in the Foo
constructor.

Use the InnerException property of the exception that CreateInstance
throws.