Parse c# class file to get properties and methods

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Parser for C#

Say if I had a simple class such as inside a textbox control in a winforms application:

public class Person
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public int Age { get; set; }

    public void DoSomething(string x)
    {
        return "Hello " + x;
    }
}

Is there an easy way I can parse the following items from it:

Class Name
Properties
Any public methods

Any ideas/suggestions appreciated.

If you want to extract such information from a piece of C# code that resides in a string (_"inside a textbox"_), you'll have to parse it. Then see this question: [Parser for C#](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/81406/parser-for-c-sharp). It also contains information on reflection, which is used to look at compiled classes to extract such information. — CodeCaster, Dec 05 '12 at 14:23
Just to clarify, you have winforms application, inside that application you have textbox where you write this class and you want to parse it, right? — Leri, Dec 05 '12 at 14:24
Yeah idea being user A types in the code into a textbox, then clicks "submit" in which my program then gets the items I would like from it. - no existing/compiled code. Hope that clarifies it. — mjbates7, Dec 05 '12 at 14:25

Sergey Berezovskiy · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-05T14:56:40.083

11

You can use Reflection for that:

Type type = typeof(Person);
var properties = type.GetProperties(); // public properties
var methods = type.GetMethods(); // public methods
var name = type.Name;

UPDATE First step for you is compiling your class

sring source = textbox.Text;

CompilerParameters parameters = new CompilerParameters() {
   GenerateExecutable = false, 
   GenerateInMemory = true 
};

var provider = new CSharpCodeProvider();       
CompilerResults results = provider.CompileAssemblyFromSource(parameters, source);

Next you should verify if your text is a valid c# code. Actually your code is not valid - method DoSomething marked as void, but it returns a string.

if (results.Errors.HasErrors)
{
    foreach(var error in results.Errors)
        MessageBox.Show(error.ToString());
    return;
}

So far so good. Now get types from your compiled in-memory assembly:

var assembly = results.CompiledAssembly;
var types = assembly.GetTypes();

In your case there will be only Person type. But anyway - now you can use Reflection to get properties, methods, etc from these types:

foreach(Type type in types)
{
    var name = type.Name;  
    var properties = type.GetProperties();    
}

edited Dec 05 '12 at 14:56

answered Dec 05 '12 at 14:20

Sergey Berezovskiy

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OP says "inside a textbox" so I assume it's a string he wants to operate on, not a compiled class. – CodeCaster Dec 05 '12 at 14:21
@CodeCaster actually it's not clear what he have in text box - is it bound to Person object, is it type name, or text above.. – Sergey Berezovskiy Dec 05 '12 at 14:23
I notice I get this: `'System.CodeDom.Compiler.CodeDomProvider.CreateCompiler()' is obsolete: 'Callers should not use the ICodeCompiler interface and should instead use the methods directly on the CodeDomProvider class. Those inheriting from CodeDomProvider must still implement this interface, and should exclude this warning or also obsolete this method.'` – mjbates7 Dec 05 '12 at 14:53
@batesy3k hold on, I'll update to more up-to date version – Sergey Berezovskiy Dec 05 '12 at 14:55
Ok thanks, that would be great :) – mjbates7 Dec 05 '12 at 15:14
@batesy3k feel free to accept :) – Sergey Berezovskiy Dec 05 '12 at 15:18
Thanks, that worked a treat, how would I pick out my "public" methods? – mjbates7 Dec 05 '12 at 15:20
1

Take a look on `GetMethods()` method http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.type.getmethods.aspx also you can specify binding flags to select private/static/etc methods – Sergey Berezovskiy Dec 05 '12 at 15:28

score 4 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 05 '12 at 15:02

4

If you need to analyse C# code at runtime, take a look at Roslyn.

edited Dec 05 '12 at 15:02

Servy

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answered Dec 05 '12 at 14:24

Nicolas Repiquet

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Specifically, Roslyn's Syntax Analysis. – JamesHoux Jul 07 '21 at 01:32

Parse c# class file to get properties and methods

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