The VarTypeUtilities static class provides a FromType method that allows you to determine the COM-based type VarType (used in OPC operations) that corresponds to a given .NET Type.
The DAUtilities static class provides methods that allow you to determine whether a given data type (VARIANT), percent deadband, update rate or value age are valid values in OPC Data Access.
The AEUtilities static class provides methods that allow you to determine whether given data type (VarType), event severity, event type filter, or notification rate are valid values in OPC Alarms&Events.