C# – How to check if a property is virtual with reflection

creflectionvirtual

Given an object, how can I tell if that object has virtual properties?

var entity = repository.GetByID(entityId);

I tried looking in:

PropertyInfo[] properties = entity.GetType().GetProperties();

But couldn't discern if any of the properties would indicate virtual.

Best Answer

PropertyInfo[] properties = entity.GetType().GetProperties()
    .Where(p => p.GetMethod.IsVirtual).ToArray();

Or, for .NET 4 and below:

PropertyInfo[] properties = entity.GetType().GetProperties()
    .Where(p => p.GetGetMethod().IsVirtual).ToArray();

That will get a list of public virtual properties.

It won't work for write-only properties. If it needs to, you can check CanRead and CanWrite manually, and read the appropriate method.

For example:

PropertyInfo[] properties = entity.GetType().GetProperties()
    .Where(p => (p.CanRead ? p.GetMethod : p.SetMethod).IsVirtual).ToArray();

You could also just grab the first accessor:

PropertyInfo[] properties = entity.GetType().GetProperties()
    .Where(p => p.GetAccessors()[0].IsVirtual).ToArray();

Related Solutions

C# – How to cast int to enum

From an int:

YourEnum foo = (YourEnum)yourInt;

From a string:

YourEnum foo = (YourEnum) Enum.Parse(typeof(YourEnum), yourString);

// The foo.ToString().Contains(",") check is necessary for enumerations marked with an [Flags] attribute
if (!Enum.IsDefined(typeof(YourEnum), foo) && !foo.ToString().Contains(","))
{
    throw new InvalidOperationException($"{yourString} is not an underlying value of the YourEnum enumeration.")
}

Update:

From number you can also

YourEnum foo = (YourEnum)Enum.ToObject(typeof(YourEnum) , yourInt);

Java – reflection and why is it useful

The name reflection is used to describe code which is able to inspect other code in the same system (or itself).

For example, say you have an object of an unknown type in Java, and you would like to call a 'doSomething' method on it if one exists. Java's static typing system isn't really designed to support this unless the object conforms to a known interface, but using reflection, your code can look at the object and find out if it has a method called 'doSomething' and then call it if you want to.

So, to give you a code example of this in Java (imagine the object in question is foo) :

Method method = foo.getClass().getMethod("doSomething", null);
method.invoke(foo, null);

One very common use case in Java is the usage with annotations. JUnit 4, for example, will use reflection to look through your classes for methods tagged with the @Test annotation, and will then call them when running the unit test.

There are some good reflection examples to get you started at http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/reflect/index.html

And finally, yes, the concepts are pretty much similar in other statically typed languages which support reflection (like C#). In dynamically typed languages, the use case described above is less necessary (since the compiler will allow any method to be called on any object, failing at runtime if it does not exist), but the second case of looking for methods which are marked or work in a certain way is still common.

Update from a comment:

The ability to inspect the code in the system and see object types is not reflection, but rather Type Introspection. Reflection is then the ability to make modifications at runtime by making use of introspection. The distinction is necessary here as some languages support introspection, but do not support reflection. One such example is C++

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C# – How to cast int to enum

Java – reflection and why is it useful

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