Question

I’ve been looking for a free (as in “free beer”) library that can parse C# 3.0 code (actually, C# 2.0 with lambdas would do it) and return some sort of AST/code DOM for a personal project. However, most alternatives I’ve seen up to now are inadequate:

• Microsoft.CSharp.CSharpCodeProvider.Parse throws a NotImpementedException;
• Visual Studio’s “exposed” code parser sucks;
• The ways of Mono’s C# compiler are impenetrable (and next to not documented);
• The C# Parser project at CodePlex only parses C# 2.0 code and thus we forget lambdas;
• Another project on SourceForge claims to parse C# to CodeDOM, but it’s 2000 days old so I guess it’s not C# 3.0;
• … and it goes on for several pages of Google results.

So… is there a free, working C# 3.0 parser out there, that can be plugged into another project?

Answer 1

I’ve had good luck with NRefactory, written in C# and used for the SharpDevelop IDE written for Mono:

http://wiki.sharpdevelop.net/NRefactory.ashx