Question

Does C# have anything like Python’s __getattr__?

I have a class with many properties, and they all share the same accessor code. I would like to be able to drop the individual accessors entirely, just like in Python.

Here’s what my code looks like now:

class Foo {     protected bool Get(string name, bool def)     {         try {             return client.Get(name);         } catch {             return def;         }     }      public bool Bar     {         get { return Get('bar', true); }         set { client.Set('bar', value); }     }      public bool Baz     {         get { return Get('baz', false); }         set { client.Set('baz', value); }     } } 

And here’s what I’d like:

class Foo {     public bool Get(string name)     {         try {             return client.Get(name);         } catch {             // Look-up default value in hash table and return it         }     }      public void Set(string name, object value)     {         client.Set(name, value)     } } 

Is there any way to achieve this in C# without calling Get directly?

Thanks,

Answer 1

No. Although C# supports reflection, it is read-only (for loaded assemblies). That means you can’t change any methods, properties, or any other metadata. Although you could create a dynamic property, calling it wouldn’t be very convenient – it would be even worse than using your Get method. Aside from using a Dictionary<string, object> and an indexer for your class, there’s not much else you can do. Anyway, isn’t doing a dictionary better if you have that many properties?

Python doesn’t check if an attribute exists at ‘compile-time’ (or at least load-time). C# does. That’s a fundamental difference between the two languages. In Python you can do:

class my_class:     pass  my_instance = my_class() my_instance.my_attr = 1 print(my_instance.my_attr) 

In C# you wouldn’t be able to do that because C# actually checks if the name my_attr exists at compile-time.