Question

I plan to put a call to MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod() at the beginning of most methods (for informative logging), but since this would present a high overhead, it would be good if a conditional attribute could be used used like:

#define LogMethodNames

where…

[Conditional("LogMethodNames")]

was put above every line call GetCurrentMethod(), like:

void DoStuff()
{
    [Conditional("LogMethodNames")]
    logger.CurrentMethod = MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod();

    //  stuff done here
}

…so at least it could be excluded from release builds.

Is something along these lines possible?

Thanks!

Gregg

PS I would try this myself now but for some reason I couldn’t get Attributes to work due to a compile error. Doh.

PPS If this can’t work I’d create a method which assigns to the logger object, like:

void SetCurrentMethod(MethodBase currentMethod)
{
    logger.CurrentMethod = currentMethod;
}

and use:

void DoStuff()
{
    [Conditional("LogMethodNames")]
    SetCurrentMethod(MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod());

    //  stuff done here
}

Any thoughts?! Thanks 🙂

Answer 1

You are close – you would need to set the Conditional attribute on the method itself:

[Conditional("LogMethodNames")]
void SetCurrentMethod(MethodBase currentMethod)
{
    logger.CurrentMethod = currentMethod;
}

For more information please see The Conditional attribute:

The attribute Conditional enables the
definition of conditional methods. The
Conditional attribute indicates a
condition by testing a conditional
compilation symbol. Calls to a
conditional method are either included
or omitted depending on whether this
symbol is defined at the point of the
call. If the symbol is defined, the
call is included; otherwise, the call
(including evaluation of the
parameters of the call) is omitted.