How to create extension methods for Types

Question

I am writing an extension method for parsing JSON string for any given type. I wanted to use the method on types instead of instances like many examples we already know, but I somewhat feel it is not supported by Visual Studio. Can someone enlighten me here? The following is the method:

public static T ParseJson<T>(this T t, string str) where T: Type
{
    if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(str)) return null;
    var serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
    var obj = serializer.Deserialize<T>(str);
    return obj;
}

I want to call the method in this fashion:

var instance = MyClass.ParseJson(text);

Thanks

Answer 1

The short answer is it cannot be done; extension methods need to work on an instance of something.