C# Programmer's Reference Attributes TutorialSee Also C# Tutorials This tutorial shows how to create custom attribute classes, use

them in code, an d query them through reflection. Sample Files See Attributes Sample to download and build the sample files discussed in this t utorial. Further Reading C# Attributes 17. Attributes AttributeUsage Discovering Type Information at Runtime Tutorial Attributes provide a powerful method of associating declarative information with C# code (types, methods, properties, and so forth). Once associated with a prog ram entity, the attribute can be queried at run time and used in any number of w ays. Example usage of attributes includes: Associating help documentation with program entities (through a Help attribute). Associating value editors to a specific type in a GUI framework (through a Value Editor attribute). In addition to a complete example, this tutorial includes the following topics: Declaring an Attribute Class The first thing you need to be able to do is declare an attribute. Using an Attribute Class Once the attribute has been created, you then associate the attribute with a par ticular program element. Accessing Attributes Through Reflection Once the attribute has been associated with a program element, you use reflectio n to query its existence and its value. Declaring an Attribute Class Declaring an attribute in C# is simple it takes the form of a class declaration that inherits from System.Attribute and has been marked with the AttributeUsage attribute as shown below: using System; [AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.All)] public class HelpAttribute : System.Attribute { public readonly string Url; public string Topic { get { return topic; } set { // Topic is a named parameter

topic = value; } } public HelpAttribute(string url) // url is a positional parameter { this.Url = url; } private string topic; } Code Discussion The attribute AttributeUsage specifies the language elements to which the attrib ute can be applied. Attributes classes are public classes derived from System.Attribute that have at least one public constructor. Attribute classes have two types of parameters: Positional parameters must be specified every time the attribute is used. Positi onal parameters are specified as constructor arguments to the attribute class. I n the example above, url is a positional parameter. Named parameters are optional. If they are specified when the attribute is used, the name of the parameter must be used. Named parameters are defined by having a nonstatic field or property. In the example above, Topic is a named parameter. Attribute parameters are restricted to constant values of the following types: Simple types (bool, byte, char, short, int, long, float, and double) string System.Type enums object (The argument to an attribute parameter of type object must be a constant value of one of the above types.) One-dimensional arrays of any of the above types Parameters for the AttributeUsage Attribute The attribute AttributeUsage provides the underlying mechanism by which attribut es are declared. AttributeUsage has one positional parameter: AllowOn, which specifies the program elements that the attribute can be assigned to (class, method, property, parameter, and so on). Valid values for this param eter can be found in the System.Attributes.AttributeTargets enumeration in the . NET Framework. The default value for this parameter is all program elements (Att ributeElements.All). AttributeUsage has one named parameter: AllowMultiple, a Boolean value that indicates whether multiple attributes can be specified for one program element. The default value for this parameter is Fals e. Using an Attribute Class Here's a simple example of using the attribute declared in the previous section: [HelpAttribute("http://localhost/MyClassInfo")] class MyClass { } In this example, the HelpAttribute attribute is associated with MyClass. Note By convention, all attribute names end with the word "Attribute" to disti nguish them from other items in the .NET Framework. However, you do not need to

specify the attribute suffix when using attributes in code. For example, you can specify HelpAttribute as follows: [Help("http://localhost/MyClassInfo")] // [Help] == [HelpAttribute] class MyClass { } Accessing Attributes Through Reflection Once attributes have been associated with program elements, reflection can be us ed to query their existence and values. The main reflection methods to query att ributes are contained in the System.Reflection.MemberInfo class (GetCustomAttrib utes family of methods). The following example demonstrates the basic way of usi ng reflection to get access to attributes: class MainClass { public static void Main() { System.Reflection.MemberInfo info = typeof(MyClass); object[] attributes = info.GetCustomAttributes(true); for (int i = 0; i < attributes.Length; i ++) { System.Console.WriteLine(attributes[i]); } } } Example The following is a complete example where all pieces are brought together. // AttributesTutorial.cs // This example shows the use of class and method attributes. using System; using System.Reflection; using System.Collections; // The IsTested class is a user-defined custom attribute class. // It can be applied to any declaration including // - types (struct, class, enum, delegate) // - members (methods, fields, events, properties, indexers) // It is used with no arguments. public class IsTestedAttribute : Attribute { public override string ToString() { return "Is Tested"; } } // The AuthorAttribute class is a user-defined attribute class. // It can be applied to classes and struct declarations only. // It takes one unnamed string argument (the author's name). // It has one optional named argument Version, which is of type int. [AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Class AttributeTargets.Struct)] public class AuthorAttribute : Attribute { // This constructor specifies the unnamed arguments to the attribute class. public AuthorAttribute(string name) { this.name = name; this.version = 0;

} // This property is readonly (it has no set accessor) // so it cannot be used as a named argument to this attribute. public string Name { get { return name; } } // This property is read-write (it has a set accessor) // so it can be used as a named argument when using this // class as an attribute class. public int Version { get { return version; } set { version = value; } } public override string ToString() { string value = "Author : " + Name; if (version != 0) { value += " Version : " + Version.ToString(); } return value; } private string name; private int version; } // Here you attach the AuthorAttribute user-defined custom attribute to // the Account class. The unnamed string argument is passed to the // AuthorAttribute class's constructor when creating the attributes. [Author("Joe Programmer")] class Account { // Attach the IsTestedAttribute custom attribute to this method. [IsTested] public void AddOrder(Order orderToAdd) { orders.Add(orderToAdd); } private ArrayList orders = new ArrayList(); } // Attach the AuthorAttribute and IsTestedAttribute custom attributes // to this class. // Note the use of the 'Version' named argument to the AuthorAttribute.

[Author("Jane Programmer", Version = 2), IsTested()] class Order { // add stuff here ... } class MainClass { private static bool IsMemberTested(MemberInfo member) { foreach (object attribute in member.GetCustomAttributes(true)) { if (attribute is IsTestedAttribute) { return true; } } return false; } private static void DumpAttributes(MemberInfo member) { Console.WriteLine("Attributes for : " + member.Name); foreach (object attribute in member.GetCustomAttributes(true)) { Console.WriteLine(attribute); } } public static void Main() { // display attributes for Account class DumpAttributes(typeof(Account)); // display list of tested members foreach (MethodInfo method in (typeof(Account)).GetMethods()) { if (IsMemberTested(method)) { Console.WriteLine("Member {0} is tested!", method.Name); } else { Console.WriteLine("Member {0} is NOT tested!", method.Name); } } Console.WriteLine(); // display attributes for Order class DumpAttributes(typeof(Order)); // display attributes for methods on the Order class foreach (MethodInfo method in (typeof(Order)).GetMethods()) { if (IsMemberTested(method)) { Console.WriteLine("Member {0} is tested!", method.Name); } else {

Console.WriteLine("Member {0} is NOT tested!", method.Name); } } Console.WriteLine(); } } Output Attributes for : Account Author : Joe Programmer Member GetHashCode is NOT tested! Member Equals is NOT tested! Member ToString is NOT tested! Member AddOrder is tested! Member GetType is NOT tested! Attributes for : Order Author : Jane Programmer Version : 2 Is Tested Member GetHashCode is NOT tested! Member Equals is NOT tested! Member ToString is NOT tested! Member GetType is NOT tested! See Also C# Tutorials

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Send feedback on this topic to Microsoft Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.