Article
11/18/2011

MethodBase.IsFamily Property

Microsoft Silverlight will reach end of support after October 2021. Learn more.

Gets a value that indicates whether the visibility of this method or constructor is described by MethodAttributes.Family; that is, the method or constructor is visible only within its class and derived classes.

Namespace: System.Reflection
Assembly: mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)

Syntax

'Declaration
Public ReadOnly Property IsFamily As Boolean

public bool IsFamily { get; }

Property Value

Type: System.Boolean
true if access to this method or constructor is exactly described by MethodAttributes.Family; otherwise, false.

Remarks

The visibility of a method or constructor is exactly described by MethodAttributes.Family if the only visibility modifier is protected. This property is false for methods that are protected internal in C# (Protected Friend in Visual Basic, protected public in C++); use the IsFamilyOrAssembly property to identify such methods.

Examples

The following example defines methods with varying levels of visibility, and displays the values of their IsAssembly, IsFamily, IsFamilyOrAssembly, and IsFamilyAndAssembly properties.

Note:
The Visual Basic and C# languages cannot define methods with MethodAttributes.FamANDAssem visibility.

To run this example, see Building Examples That Use a Demo Method and a TextBlock Control.

Imports System.Reflection

Public Class Example

   Public Sub m_Public()
   End Sub
   Friend Sub m_Friend()
   End Sub
   Protected Sub m_Protected()
   End Sub
   Protected Friend Sub m_Protected_Friend()
   End Sub

   Public Shared Sub Demo(ByVal outputBlock As System.Windows.Controls.TextBlock)

      outputBlock.FontFamily = New FontFamily("Courier New")
      outputBlock.Text &= String.Format(vbCrLf & _
          "{0,-30}{1,-18}{2}", "", "IsAssembly", "IsFamilyOrAssembly") & vbCrLf
      outputBlock.Text &= String.Format("{0,-21}{1,-18}{2,-18}{3}" & vbCrLf, _
          "", "IsPublic", "IsFamily", "IsFamilyAndAssembly") & vbCrLf

      For Each m As MethodBase In GetType(Example).GetMethods( _
          BindingFlags.Instance Or BindingFlags.NonPublic Or BindingFlags.Public)

         If Left(m.Name, 1) = "m" Then

            outputBlock.Text &= String.Format("{0,-21}{1,-9}{2,-9}{3,-9}{4,-9}{5,-9}", _
                m.Name, _
                m.IsPublic, _
                m.IsAssembly, _
                m.IsFamily, _
                m.IsFamilyOrAssembly, _
                m.IsFamilyAndAssembly _
            ) & vbCrLf
         End If
      Next
   End Sub
End Class

' This code example produces output similar to the following:
'
'                              IsAssembly        IsFamilyOrAssembly
'                     IsPublic          IsFamily          IsFamilyAndAssembly
'
'm_Public             True     False    False    False    False
'm_Friend             False    True     False    False    False
'm_Protected          False    False    True     False    False
'm_Protected_Friend   False    False    False    True     False

using System;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Windows.Media;

public class Example
{
   public void m_public() { }
   internal void m_internal() { }
   protected void m_protected() { }
   protected internal void m_protected_public() { }

   public static void Demo(System.Windows.Controls.TextBlock outputBlock)
   {
      outputBlock.FontFamily = new FontFamily("Courier New");
      outputBlock.Text += String.Format("\n{0,-30}{1,-18}{2}", "", "IsAssembly", "IsFamilyOrAssembly") + "\n";
      outputBlock.Text += String.Format("{0,-21}{1,-18}{2,-18}{3}\n",
          "", "IsPublic", "IsFamily", "IsFamilyAndAssembly") + "\n";

      foreach (MethodBase m in typeof(Example).GetMethods(
          BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Public))
      {
         if (m.Name.Substring(0, 1) == "m")
         {
            outputBlock.Text += String.Format("{0,-21}{1,-9}{2,-9}{3,-9}{4,-9}{5,-9}",
                m.Name,
                m.IsPublic,
                m.IsAssembly,
                m.IsFamily,
                m.IsFamilyOrAssembly,
                m.IsFamilyAndAssembly
            ) + "\n";
         }
      }
   }
}

/* This code example produces output similar to the following:

                              IsAssembly        IsFamilyOrAssembly
                     IsPublic          IsFamily          IsFamilyAndAssembly

m_public             True     False    False    False    False
m_internal           False    True     False    False    False
m_protected          False    False    True     False    False
m_protected_public   False    False    False    True     False
 */

Version Information

Silverlight

Supported in: 5, 4, 3

Silverlight for Windows Phone

Supported in: Windows Phone OS 7.1, Windows Phone OS 7.0

XNA Framework

Supported in: Xbox 360, Windows Phone OS 7.0

Platforms

For a list of the operating systems and browsers that are supported by Silverlight, see Supported Operating Systems and Browsers.

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