Using Reflection in C# to get Property Values
Here is some C# code to extract values from an object instance when you don't know (or care) what properties are available. A possible use case is when you know you want to iterate over / use the properties of an object -- all of them, no matter what they are -- and you don't want to hard code their names. Perhaps you're dealing with an object where the object author regularly adds and updates properties.
Now here's the main code. Short and sweet:
There's a certain poetic beauty to this code -- so often in programming you have to know exactly what you're asking for in a way that's very literal. Here, it's revealing itself to us without us having to know beforehand. There's a sort of Heideggerian "givenness" to it.
Output:
//Person.cs: Random test class that exposes some properties
using System;
public class Person{
public string FirstName { get{return "Jeffrey";} }
public string LastName { get{return "Knight";} }
public int Age { get { return 35; } }
}
Now here's the main code. Short and sweet:
//Main.cs: code to reflect on a saturated instance of this class to get the values out
using System;
using System.Reflection;
public class Test{
public static void Main(){
Person p = new Person();
Type pType = p.GetType();
PropertyInfo[] propertyInfo = pType.GetProperties();
foreach(PropertyInfo prop in propertyInfo){
string propName = prop.Name;
object propValue = pType.GetProperty(propName).GetValue(p, null);
Console.WriteLine(String.Format("{0}:{1}", propName, propValue));
}
}
}
There's a certain poetic beauty to this code -- so often in programming you have to know exactly what you're asking for in a way that's very literal. Here, it's revealing itself to us without us having to know beforehand. There's a sort of Heideggerian "givenness" to it.
Output:
FirstName:Jeffrey LastName:Knight Age:35