Question

Note: This is a follow-up to an answer on a previous question.

I’m decorating a property’s setter with an Attribute called TestMaxStringLength that’s used in method called from the setter for validation.

The property currently looks like this:

public string CompanyName
{
    get
    {
        return this._CompanyName;
    }
    [TestMaxStringLength(50)]
    set
    {
        this.ValidateProperty(value);
        this._CompanyName = value;
    }
}

But I would rather it look like this:

[TestMaxStringLength(50)]
public string CompanyName
{
    get
    {
        return this._CompanyName;
    }
    set
    {
        this.ValidateProperty(value);
        this._CompanyName = value;
    }
}

The code for ValidateProperty that is responsible for looking up the attributes of the setter is:

private void ValidateProperty(string value)
{
    var attributes = 
       new StackTrace()
           .GetFrame(1)
           .GetMethod()
           .GetCustomAttributes(typeof(TestMaxStringLength), true);
    //Use the attributes to check the length, throw an exception, etc.
}

How can I change the ValidateProperty code to look for attributes on the property instead of the set method?

Answer 1

As far as I know, there’s no way to get a PropertyInfo from a MethodInfo of one of its setters. Though, of course, you could use some string hacks, like using the name for the lookup, and such. I’m thinking something like:

var method = new StackTrace().GetFrame(1).GetMethod();
var propName = method.Name.Remove(0, 4); // remove get_ / set_
var property = method.DeclaringType.GetProperty(propName);
var attribs = property.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(TestMaxStringLength), true);

Needless to say, though, that’s not exactly performant.

Also, be careful with the StackTrace class – it’s a performance hog, too, when used too often.