How do I find out whether a ResourceManager contains a key without calling ResourceManager.GetString() and catching the exception?

Question

So I have a ResourceManager that points to a resource file with a bunch of strings in it. When I call GetString() with a key that doesn't exist in the file, I get a System.Resources.MissingManifestResourceException. I need to find out whether the Resource contains the specified key without using exception handling to control program flow. Is there a keys.exists() method or something?

Answer 1

Not sure what the problem was, but I got frustrated and deleted/recreated the resx files and this worked.

Answer 2

Calling the GetString method with a key that doesn't exist does not raise an exception, it just returns null.

However, the MissingManifestResourceException occurrs when trying to create a ResourceManager with the wrong name. The most common error is to forget to include the namespace in the name of the resources.

For example, doing :

var r = new ResourceManager("MyResource", assembly);

instead of

var r = new ResourceManager("MyNamespace.MyResource", assembly);

will result in a MissingManifestResourceException.

Answer 3

Note that by default, it appears that a new .net project's Resources.resx is going to be in the Properties folder, so you'll need to create the ResourceManager like this:

rm = new ResourceManager("MyNamespace.Properties.MyResource", assembly);

Alternatively, by getting frustrated and deleting/recreating Resources.resx, you'll probably create it in the root of the project, in which case the thing you were doing before, namely this:

rm = new ResourceManager("MyNamespace.MyResource", assembly);

will work. This is exactly what happened to me today, and I'm adding this post in the hope that it will spare someone some grief.