How to obtain a list of constants in a class and their values

Question

I have a class in VB with some constants that represent the string name of my security roles. I need to be able to call a function to return to me a string array(or collect

Answer 1

Ok, here's how it is done. I didn't do this on my own though, http://weblogs.asp.net/whaggard/archive/2003/02/20/2708.aspx had the answer, I just ran it through a C# to VB.Net converter.

Function GetStringsFromClassConstants(ByVal type As System.Type) As String()
    Dim constants As New ArrayList()
    Dim fieldInfos As FieldInfo() = type.GetFields(BindingFlags.[Public] Or _ 
        BindingFlags.[Static] Or BindingFlags.FlattenHierarchy)

    For Each fi As FieldInfo In fieldInfos
        If fi.IsLiteral AndAlso Not fi.IsInitOnly Then
            constants.Add(fi)
        End If
    Next

    Dim ConstantsStringArray as New System.Collections.Specialized.StringCollection

    For Each fi as FieldInfo in _ 
        DirectCast(constants.ToArray(GetType(FieldInfo)), FieldInfo())
        ConstantsStringArray.Add(fi.GetValue(Nothing))
    Next

    Dim retVal(ConstantsStringArray.Count - 1) as String
    ConstantsStringArray.CopyTo(retval,0)
    Return retval    
End Function

Answer 2

You can build an object that is nearly identical to a string enum in VB.Net. See my previous post on the topic here:

Getting static field values of a type using reflection