CustomAttribute Struct

Definition

Namespace:

System.Reflection.Metadata

Assembly:

System.Reflection.Metadata.dll

Source:

CustomAttribute.cs

Provides information about a custom attribute.

public value class CustomAttribute

public readonly struct CustomAttribute

type CustomAttribute = struct

Public Structure CustomAttribute

Inheritance

Object

ValueType

CustomAttribute

Examples

This example shows how to print all custom attributes applied to the type definition:

class MyAttribute : Attribute
{
    public int X { get; set; }
}

[My(X = 1)]
class ExampleType1 { }

[My(X = 2)]
class ExampleType2 { }

static void PrintCustomAttributes(MetadataReader mr, TypeDefinition t)
{
    // Enumerate custom attributes on the type definition
    foreach (CustomAttributeHandle attrHandle in t.GetCustomAttributes())
    {
        CustomAttribute attr = mr.GetCustomAttribute(attrHandle);

        // Display the attribute type full name
        if (attr.Constructor.Kind == HandleKind.MethodDefinition)
        {
            MethodDefinition mdef = mr.GetMethodDefinition((MethodDefinitionHandle)attr.Constructor);
            TypeDefinition tdef = mr.GetTypeDefinition(mdef.GetDeclaringType());
            Console.WriteLine($"Type:  {mr.GetString(tdef.Namespace)}.{mr.GetString(tdef.Name)}");
        }
        else if (attr.Constructor.Kind == HandleKind.MemberReference)
        {
            MemberReference mref = mr.GetMemberReference((MemberReferenceHandle)attr.Constructor);

            if (mref.Parent.Kind == HandleKind.TypeReference)
            {
                TypeReference tref = mr.GetTypeReference((TypeReferenceHandle)mref.Parent);
                Console.WriteLine($"Type:  {mr.GetString(tref.Namespace)}.{mr.GetString(tref.Name)}");
            }
            else if (mref.Parent.Kind == HandleKind.TypeDefinition)
            {
                TypeDefinition tdef = mr.GetTypeDefinition((TypeDefinitionHandle)mref.Parent);
                Console.WriteLine($"Type:  {mr.GetString(tdef.Namespace)}.{mr.GetString(tdef.Name)}");
            }
        }

        // Display the attribute value
        byte[] data = mr.GetBlobBytes(attr.Value);
        Console.Write("Value: ");

        for (int i = 0; i < data.Length; i++) Console.Write($"{data[i]:X2} ");

        Console.WriteLine();
    }
}

static void PrintTypesCustomAttributes(MetadataReader mr)
{
    foreach (TypeDefinitionHandle tdh in mr.TypeDefinitions)
    {
        TypeDefinition t = mr.GetTypeDefinition(tdh);
        Console.WriteLine($"{mr.GetString(t.Namespace)}.{mr.GetString(t.Name)}");
        PrintCustomAttributes(mr, t);
    }
}

Remarks

A custom attribute is an annotation that associates additional information with a metadata element, such as an assembly, type, or method. You can use the GetCustomAttribute(CustomAttributeHandle) method to get a custom attribute instance. For more information about attributes in .NET, see Extend metadata using attributes.

Properties

Constructor	Gets the constructor (the MethodDefinitionHandle or MemberReferenceHandle) of the custom attribute type.
Parent	Gets the handle of the metadata entity the attribute is applied to.
Value	Gets the value of the attribute.

Methods

DecodeValue<TType>(ICustomAttributeTypeProvider<TType>)

Decodes the arguments encoded in the value blob.