title: Reflection of C# Types: GetType( "myType" ) vs typeof( myType ) behavior differs. Why?
body: <p>I would like to use reflection to get an assembly for a supplied namespace and type.  I would prefer to supply these as strings.  It is probably important to note that the namespace and type are defined in an assembly <em>other</em> than the one that is executing this code, but the executing code assembly does have a <em>reference</em> to that other assembly. </p>
  
  <p>My question is why does the static GetType(string) method return null, while if I hard-code the namespace and class and use typeof() as in the if statement, I get the required result?</p>
  
  <p>Here is the code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>   string fullClassName = "MyNameSpace.MyClass";
     Type t = Type.GetType( fullClassName  ); // this returns null!
     if ( t == null ) 
     {
        t = typeof(MyNameSpace.MyClass); // this returns a valid type!
     }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Thanks for any insights you may have...</p>