Referencing System.Type?

[ceestand]

I'm trying to make a change to an object depending contextually on it's type. The following code, even though I pass the Int32 into the function as an Object, still knows it's an Int32.

public String FunctionName(Object obj)
{
return obj.GetType().ToString();
}

Int32 testObj = 0;
FunctionName(testObj);
//returns "System.Int32"

However, the following gives me a compile-time exception:

public void FunctionName(ref Object obj)
{
Type typ = obj.GetType();
Object x = 0;
obj = (typ)x;
}

Even if I replace the typ object with System.Int32, I still get an error saying I can't cast Object to Int32. Maybe someone out there knows:

Why won't it let me compile this and just give me an exception at runtime if the cast isn't valid?

Is there a way for me to get a handle on a specific System.Type? For instance, I can pass "System.Int 32" into a generic function, but the following won't work:

public T SomeFunction<T>()
{...}
Type typ = Type.GetType(Int32);
SomeFunction<typ>();

[Plater]

I think if you use the "ref" keyword you cannot convert it?
I would not expect you to be able to type cast to a variable type like that, but you should be able to like switch on the object's actual type.