.Net Get property name

Question

I would like to get the name of a property, for example:

Dim _foo As String

Public Property Foo as String
Get
   Return _foo
End Get
Private Set(ByVal value as String)
   _foo = value
End Set

Sub Main()
  Console.Write(Foo.Name)'Outputs "Foo"
End Sub

Any ideas how?

Answer 1

via reflection. Use GetType() method of the type, then look into GetProperties() method and PropertyInfo class. (if you'd like to retrieve the string "propertyName" (for a field called propertyName - use xxx.GetType().GetFields()[0].Name if it's first field in the class.

Answer 2

Do you mean a property, or do you mean a field?

There are clever lambda techniques for getting the names of properties - here's a C# example:

String GetPropertyName<TValue>(Expression<Func<TValue>> propertyId)
{
   return ((MemberExpression)propertyId.Body).Member.Name;
}

Call it like this:

GetPropertyName(() => MyProperty)

and it will return "MyProperty"

Not sure if that's what you're after or not.

Answer 3

public static ProperyInfo GetPropInfo<T>(this T @object
    , Expression<Action<T>> propSelector)
{
    MemberExpression exp= propSelector.Body as MemberExpression;
    return exp.Member as PropertyInfo;
}

Then use it like this:

string str = ....
string propertyName = str.GetPropInfo(a => a.Lenght).Name;

Note that the above mothod is an extension and should be written in a static class and used by including the namespace