C#: How to get all public (both get and set) string properties of a type

Question

I am trying to make a method that will go through a list of generic objects and replace all their properties of type string which is either null or

Answer 1

I suggest a different approach: AOP.
You can intercept the setter and set the desired value to a valid one. With PostSharp it's quite easy.

Answer 2

BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance should do it

GetSetMethod()

Answer 3

I agree with other answers, but I prefer to refactor the search itself to be easly queried with Linq, so the query could be as follow:

        var asm = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
        var properties = (from prop
                              in asm.GetType()
                                .GetProperties(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance)
                          where 
                            prop.PropertyType == typeof (string) && 
                            prop.CanWrite && 
                            prop.CanRead
                          select prop).ToList();
        properties.ForEach(p => Debug.WriteLine(p.Name));

I took for my example the Assembly type, which hasn't read/write string properties, but if the same code search for just read properties, the result will be:

• CodeBase
• EscapedCodeBase
• FullName
• Location
• ImageRuntimeVersion

Which are the string read-only Assembly type properties

Answer 4

http://jefferytay.wordpress.com/2010/05/03/simple-and-useful-tostring/

for a tostring override method which allows you to get all the properties of the class

Answer 5

You will find the properties as such with BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance. Then you will need to examine each PropertyInfo instance by checking the CanWrite and CanRead properties, in order to find out whether they are are readable and/or writeable.

Update: code example

PropertyInfo[] props = yourClassInstance.GetType().GetProperties(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance);
for (int i = 0; i < props.Length; i++)
{
    if (props[i].PropertyType == typeof(string) && props[i].CanWrite)
    {
        // do your update
    }
}

---

I looked into it more in detail after your update. If you also examine the MethodInfo objects returned by GetGetMethod and GetSetMethod you will hit the target, I think;

 var properties = typeof(TestSubject).GetProperties(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Public)
        .Where(ø => ø.CanRead && ø.CanWrite)
        .Where(ø => ø.PropertyType == typeof(string))
        .Where(ø => ø.GetGetMethod(true).IsPublic)
        .Where(ø => ø.GetSetMethod(true).IsPublic);

By default these two methods return only public getters and setters (risking a NullReferenceException in a case like this), but passing true as above makes them also return private ones. Then you can examine the IsPublic (or IsPrivate) properties.

Answer 6

If you don't specify any binding flags you will get the public, instance properties -- which is what you want. But then you will need to check if the PropertyType on the PropertyInfo object is of type String. Unless you know in advance, you'll also need to check whether the property is readable/writable as @Fredrik indicates.

using System.Linq;

public static void ReplaceEmptyStrings<T>(List<T> list, string replacement)
{
    var properties = typeof(T).GetProperties()
                              .Where( p => p.PropertyType == typeof(string) );
    foreach(var p in properties)
    {
        foreach(var item in list)
        {
            if(string.IsNullOrEmpty((string) p.GetValue(item, null)))
                p.SetValue(item, replacement, null);
        }
    }
}