Question

Suppose I have an attribute capable to be set to a System.Object say:

[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Property)]
class MyAttrAttribute : Attribute {
  public object ThisOne { get; set; }
}

I’d like to get the same result of this (that doesn’t compile):

class AttrTarget {
  [MyAttr(ThisOne = new MyClass())]
  public MyClass Thing { get; set; }
}

There’s a way to achieve the same result without using reflection?

Answer 1

The DefaultValue attribute for example has a Type, String constructor. This can be used to create an instance e.g. for desired time span or a desired color:

[DefaultValue(typeof(TimeSpan), "00:00:03")]
public TimeSpan Timeout {get; set;}

[DefaultValue(typeof(Color), "Red")]
public Color HighlightColor {get; set;}

So maybe this kind of creating attribute values helps you to get an idea on how to solve your problem.