Reflection - get attribute name and value on property

Question

I have a class, lets call it Book with a property called Name. With that property, I have an attribute associated with it.

public class Book
{
    [Author(\"         


        

Answer 1

Here are some static methods you can use to get the MaxLength, or any other attribute.

using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Reflection;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
using System.Linq.Expressions;

public static class AttributeHelpers {

public static Int32 GetMaxLength<T>(Expression<Func<T,string>> propertyExpression) {
    return GetPropertyAttributeValue<T,string,MaxLengthAttribute,Int32>(propertyExpression,attr => attr.Length);
}

//Optional Extension method
public static Int32 GetMaxLength<T>(this T instance,Expression<Func<T,string>> propertyExpression) {
    return GetMaxLength<T>(propertyExpression);
}


//Required generic method to get any property attribute from any class
public static TValue GetPropertyAttributeValue<T, TOut, TAttribute, TValue>(Expression<Func<T,TOut>> propertyExpression,Func<TAttribute,TValue> valueSelector) where TAttribute : Attribute {
    var expression = (MemberExpression)propertyExpression.Body;
    var propertyInfo = (PropertyInfo)expression.Member;
    var attr = propertyInfo.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(TAttribute),true).FirstOrDefault() as TAttribute;

    if (attr==null) {
        throw new MissingMemberException(typeof(T).Name+"."+propertyInfo.Name,typeof(TAttribute).Name);
    }

    return valueSelector(attr);
}

}

Using the static method...

var length = AttributeHelpers.GetMaxLength<Player>(x => x.PlayerName);

Or using the optional extension method on an instance...

var player = new Player();
var length = player.GetMaxLength(x => x.PlayerName);

Or using the full static method for any other attribute (StringLength for example)...

var length = AttributeHelpers.GetPropertyAttributeValue<Player,string,StringLengthAttribute,Int32>(prop => prop.PlayerName,attr => attr.MaximumLength);

Inspired by the Mikael Engver's answer.

Answer 2

If you just want one specific Attribute value For instance Display Attribute you can use the following code:

var pInfo = typeof(Book).GetProperty("Name")
                             .GetCustomAttribute<DisplayAttribute>();
var name = pInfo.Name;

Answer 3

I wrote this into a dynamic method since I use lots of attributes throughout my application. Method:

public static dynamic GetAttribute(Type objectType, string propertyName, Type attrType)
    {
        //get the property
        var property = objectType.GetProperty(propertyName);

        //check for object relation
        return property.GetCustomAttributes().FirstOrDefault(x => x.GetType() == attrType);
    }

Usage:

var objectRelAttr = GetAttribute(typeof(Person), "Country", typeof(ObjectRelationAttribute));

var displayNameAttr = GetAttribute(typeof(Product), "Category", typeof(DisplayNameAttribute));

Hope this helps anyone

Answer 4

To get all attributes of a property in a dictionary use this:

typeof(Book)
  .GetProperty("Name")
  .GetCustomAttributes(false) 
  .ToDictionary(a => a.GetType().Name, a => a);

remember to change from false to true if you want to include inheritted attributes as well.

Answer 5

to get attribute from enum, i'm using :

 public enum ExceptionCodes
 {
  [ExceptionCode(1000)]
  InternalError,
 }

 public static (int code, string message) Translate(ExceptionCodes code)
        {
            return code.GetType()
            .GetField(Enum.GetName(typeof(ExceptionCodes), code))
            .GetCustomAttributes(false).Where((attr) =>
            {
                return (attr is ExceptionCodeAttribute);
            }).Select(customAttr =>
            {
                var attr = (customAttr as ExceptionCodeAttribute);
                return (attr.Code, attr.FriendlyMessage);
            }).FirstOrDefault();
        }

// Using

 var _message = Translate(code);

Answer 6

private static Dictionary<string, string> GetAuthors()
{
    return typeof(Book).GetProperties()
        .SelectMany(prop => prop.GetCustomAttributes())
        .OfType<AuthorAttribute>()
        .ToDictionary(a => a.GetType().Name.Replace("Attribute", ""), a => a.Name);
}

Example using generics (target framework 4.5)

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Reflection;

private static Dictionary<string, string> GetAttribute<TAttribute, TType>(
    Func<TAttribute, string> valueFunc)
    where TAttribute : Attribute
{
    return typeof(TType).GetProperties()
        .SelectMany(p => p.GetCustomAttributes())
        .OfType<TAttribute>()
        .ToDictionary(a => a.GetType().Name.Replace("Attribute", ""), valueFunc);
}

Usage

var dictionary = GetAttribute<AuthorAttribute, Book>(a => a.Name);