Article
11/18/2011

PropertyInfo Class

Microsoft Silverlight will reach end of support after October 2021. Learn more.

Discovers the attributes of a property and provides access to property metadata.

Inheritance Hierarchy

System.Object
  System.Reflection.MemberInfo
    System.Reflection.PropertyInfo
      System.Reflection.Emit.PropertyBuilder

Namespace: System.Reflection
Assembly: mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)

Syntax

'Declaration
<ComVisibleAttribute(True)> _
<ClassInterfaceAttribute(ClassInterfaceType.None)> _
Public MustInherit Class PropertyInfo _
    Inherits MemberInfo

[ComVisibleAttribute(true)]
[ClassInterfaceAttribute(ClassInterfaceType.None)]
public abstract class PropertyInfo : MemberInfo

The PropertyInfo type exposes the following members.

Constructors

	Name	Description
	PropertyInfo	Initializes a new instance of the PropertyInfo class.

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Properties

	Name	Description
	Attributes	Gets the attributes for this property.
	CanRead	Gets a value indicating whether the property can be read.
	CanWrite	Gets a value indicating whether the property can be written to.
	DeclaringType	Gets the class that declares this member. (Inherited from MemberInfo.)
	IsSpecialName	Gets a value indicating whether the name of the property is recognized as a special name by compilers.
	MemberType	Gets a MemberTypes value indicating that this member is a property. (Overrides MemberInfo.MemberType.)
	MetadataToken	Gets a value that identifies a metadata element. (Inherited from MemberInfo.)
	Module	Gets the module in which the type that declares the member represented by the current MemberInfo is defined. (Inherited from MemberInfo.)
	Name	Gets the name of the current member. (Inherited from MemberInfo.)
	PropertyType	Gets the type of this property.
	ReflectedType	Gets the class object that was used to obtain this instance of MemberInfo. (Inherited from MemberInfo.)

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Methods

	Name	Description
	Equals(Object)	Determines whether the specified Object is equal to the current Object. (Inherited from Object.)
	Finalize	Allows an object to try to free resources and perform other cleanup operations before the Object is reclaimed by garbage collection. (Inherited from Object.)
	GetAccessors()	Returns an array whose elements reflect the public get, set, and other accessors of the property reflected by the current instance.
	GetAccessors(Boolean)	Returns an array whose elements reflect the public (and, if specified, non-public) get, set, and other accessors of the property reflected by the current instance.
	GetConstantValue	Returns a literal value associated with the property by a compiler.
	GetCustomAttributes(Boolean)	When overridden in a derived class, returns an array of all custom attributes applied to this member. (Inherited from MemberInfo.)
	GetCustomAttributes(Type, Boolean)	When overridden in a derived class, returns an array of custom attributes applied to this member and identified by Type. (Inherited from MemberInfo.)
	GetGetMethod()	Returns the public get accessor for this property.
	GetGetMethod(Boolean)	When overridden in a derived class, returns the public or non-public get accessor for this property.
	GetHashCode	Serves as a hash function for a particular type. (Inherited from Object.)
	GetIndexParameters	When overridden in a derived class, returns an array of all the index parameters for the property.
	GetRawConstantValue	Returns a literal value associated with the property by a compiler.
	GetSetMethod()	Returns the public set accessor for this property.
	GetSetMethod(Boolean)	When overridden in a derived class, returns the set accessor for this property.
	GetType	Gets the Type of the current instance. (Inherited from Object.)
	GetValue(Object, array<Object[])	Returns the value of the property with optional index values for indexed properties.
	GetValue(Object, BindingFlags, Binder, array<Object[], CultureInfo)	When overridden in a derived class, returns the value of a property that has the specified binding, index, and CultureInfo.
	IsDefined	When overridden in a derived class, indicates whether one or more attributes of the specified type or of its derived types is applied to this member. (Inherited from MemberInfo.)
	MemberwiseClone	Creates a shallow copy of the current Object. (Inherited from Object.)
	SetValue(Object, Object, array<Object[])	Sets the value of the property on the specified object, with optional index values for indexed properties.
	SetValue(Object, Object, BindingFlags, Binder, array<Object[], CultureInfo)	When overridden in a derived class, sets the property value for the given object to the given value, subject to the specified binding constraints, binder, and culture.
	ToString	Returns a string that represents the current object. (Inherited from Object.)

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Remarks

Properties are logically the same as fields. A property is a named aspect of an object's state whose value is typically accessible through get and set accessors. Properties may be read-only, in which case there is no set accessor.

Note:
To determine whether a property is static, you must obtain the MethodInfo for the get or set accessor, by calling the GetGetMethod or the GetSetMethod method, and examine its IsStatic property.

Calling ICustomAttributeProvider.GetCustomAttributes on PropertyInfo and specifying true for the inherit parameter does not walk the type hierarchy. Use the Attribute.GetCustomAttributes(MemberInfo, Boolean) method to list inherited custom attributes. Note, however, that even this method finds only those inherited custom attributes that derive from System.Attribute.

Examples

The following example shows how to get the value of an indexed property using reflection. The String.Chars property is the default property (the indexer in C#) of the String class.

Note:
To run this example, see Building Examples That Use a Demo Method and a TextBlock Control.

Imports System.Reflection

Class Example

   Public Shared Sub Demo(ByVal outputBlock As System.Windows.Controls.TextBlock) 

        Dim test As String = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"

        ' To retrieve the value of the indexed Chars property  using 
        ' reflection, create an instance of PropertyInfo for Chars.
        '
        Dim pinfo As PropertyInfo = GetType(String).GetProperty("Chars")

        ' To retrieve an instance property, the GetValue method
        ' requires the object whose property is being accessed, and 
        ' an array of objects representing the index values. 

        ' Get the seventh character in the test string. 
        ' Note that the index is zero-based.
        Dim indexArgs() As Object = { 6 }
        Dim value As Object = pinfo.GetValue(test, indexArgs)
        outputBlock.Text &= _
            String.Format("The character at index 6 is ""{0}""." & vbLf, value)

        ' Show the complete string, one character at a time.
        For i As Integer = 0 To test.Length - 1
            outputBlock.Text &= pinfo.GetValue(test, New Object() { i })
        Next
        outputBlock.Text &= vbLf

    End Sub

End Class

' This example produces the following output:
'
'The character at index 6 is "g".
'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

using System;
using System.Reflection;

class Example
{
    public static void Demo(System.Windows.Controls.TextBlock outputBlock)
    {
        string test = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";

        // To retrieve the value of the indexed Chars property  using 
        // reflection, create an instance of PropertyInfo for Chars.
        //
        PropertyInfo pinfo = typeof(string).GetProperty("Chars");

        // To retrieve an instance property, the GetValue method
        // requires the object whose property is being accessed, and 
        // an array of objects representing the index values. 

        // Get the seventh character in the test string. 
        // Note that the index is zero-based.
        object[] indexArgs = { 6 };
        object value = pinfo.GetValue(test, indexArgs);
        outputBlock.Text += 
            String.Format("The character at index 6 is \"{0}\".\n", value);

        // Show the complete string, one character at a time.
        for(int i = 0; i < test.Length; i++)
        {
            outputBlock.Text += pinfo.GetValue(test, new object[] { i });
        }
        outputBlock.Text += "\n";
    }
}

/* This example produces the following output:

The character at index 6 is "g".
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
 */

Version Information

Silverlight

Supported in: 5, 4, 3

Silverlight for Windows Phone

Supported in: Windows Phone OS 7.1, Windows Phone OS 7.0

XNA Framework

Supported in: Xbox 360, Windows Phone OS 7.0

Platforms

For a list of the operating systems and browsers that are supported by Silverlight, see Supported Operating Systems and Browsers.

Thread Safety

This type is thread safe.

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