Programmatic equivalent of default(Type)

• In case of a value type use Activator.CreateInstance and it should work fine.
• When using reference type just return null

public static object GetDefault(Type type)
{
   if(type.IsValueType)
   {
      return Activator.CreateInstance(type);
   }
   return null;
}

In the newer version of .net such as .net standard, type.IsValueType needs to be written as type.GetTypeInfo().IsValueType

Why not call the method that returns default(T) with reflection ? You can use GetDefault of any type with:

    public object GetDefault(Type t)
    {
        return this.GetType().GetMethod("GetDefaultGeneric").MakeGenericMethod(t).Invoke(this, null);
    }

    public T GetDefaultGeneric<T>()
    {
        return default(T);
    }

You can use PropertyInfo.SetValue(obj, null). If called on a value type it will give you the default. This behavior is documented in .NET 4.0 and in .NET 4.5.