How to: Define Your Own Attributes

Using attribute classes, you can create your own custom attributes and use them in addition to the .NET Framework attributes to provide additional information about program elements.

To define a custom attribute

1. Declare a class and apply the AttributeUsageAttribute attribute to it. The name of your class is the name of the new attribute, as shown in the following code:

   <AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.All)> Class TestAttribute
   

2. Declare that the class inherits from System.Attribute:

   Inherits System.Attribute
   

3. Define Private fields to store property values:

   Private m_SomeValue As String
   

4. If appropriate, create a constructor for the attribute:

   Public Sub New(ByVal Value As String)
       m_SomeValue = Value
   End Sub
   

5. Define methods, fields, and properties for the attribute:

   Public Sub Attr(ByVal AttrValue As String)
       'Add method code here. 
   End Sub 
   Public Property SomeValue() As String  ' A named parameter.
       Get 
           Return m_SomeValue
       End Get 
       Set(ByVal Value As String)
           m_SomeValue = Value
       End Set 
   End Property
   

6. End the class with the End Class construct:

   End Class
   

See Also

Concepts

Application of Attributes

Object Lifetime: How Objects Are Created and Destroyed

Reference

AttributeUsageAttribute