Extending Metadata Using Attributes

The common language runtime allows you to add keyword-like descriptive declarations, called attributes, to annotate programming elements such as types, fields, methods, and properties. Attributes are saved with the metadata of a Microsoft .NET Framework file and can be used to describe your code to the runtime or to affect application behavior at run time. While the .NET Framework supplies many useful attributes, you can also design and deploy your own.

In This Section

• Attributes Overview
  Provides an overview of attributes and how they are used in the .NET Framework.

• Applying Attributes
  Describes how to apply an attribute to an element of your code.

• Writing Custom Attributes
  Describes how to write your own custom attributes.

• Retrieving Information Stored in Attributes
  Describes how to retrieve custom attributes.

Related Sections

• Metadata and Self-Describing Components
  Provides an overview of metadata and describes how it is implemented in a .NET Framework portable executable (PE) file.

• How to: Load Assemblies into the Reflection-Only Context
  Explains how to retrieve custom attribute information in the reflection-only context.