CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#reflection
SyncMaster
SyncMaster

Reputation: 9936

How to get Classes and methods from a .cs file using Reflections in C#.?

How to get the classes that are available in a '.cs' file.? Like we can get the classes and methods in an Assembly using,

Assembly.GetTypes() and Type.GetMethods()

to get the Class and methods in an Assembly.

Similarly how to get all the classes present within a C# file(.cs file).? I need to get the classes in a .cs file from which i can easily get the methods within them and further details like parameters of methods etc.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 6387

Answers (6)

mihi
mihi

Reputation: 6735

First of all, there is no such thing as the .cs file in which a class is defined. A class can be marked as partial and parts can be defined in several .cs files.

When you compile with debug information, the filenames for each method remain in the assembly (for each line of the source file, the corresponding IL commands are tagged).

Unfortunately, I don't know an easy way to get to that information from within the running application (without parsing the assembly file manually).

If you are safe calling the method, you can call it and in parallel construct a stack trace (from another thread) - in the StackFrame object you will find the original file name. But this is slow (as you have to call every method just to find that the filename is different) and risky (what if the method formats your hard drive?).

So, the only way you could go is try to parse the .cs file with a parser like AntLR yourself.

Upvotes: 0

Ahmed
Ahmed

Reputation: 7238

I recommend you to use a parser generator tool to generate a quick c# parser, you can use Antlr.

Also you can check this and this

Upvotes: 1

rein
rein

Reputation: 33455

I've done this previously by invoking the C# compiler, compiling the C# file and then using reflection on the outputted type. This is possible if the C# file is a standalone file and doesn't have any dependencies.

However, the correct way would be to use a parser - something which isn't that easy to do. There are a couple of options available, MinosseCC being one of them.

Incidentally, C# 5.0 will make it a lot easier to compile code on the fly by being able to compile a String and getting back executable code. Can't wait for this - it's sure to confuse everyone that reads my code.

Upvotes: 0

Nick Berardi
Nick Berardi

Reputation: 54854

From with in the class you can always call 

this.GetType()

or outside the class you can always call

obj.GetType()

however when you compile an application, which is required for reflection to work, you can no longer get their definitions by file.

Upvotes: 0

Andrew Hare
Andrew Hare

Reputation: 351526

The compiler erases all notions of a codefile from your code as it is compiled. That being said perhaps it is possible to retrieve the information you want from debugging symbols if they are available in your assembly.

Upvotes: 0

Mehrdad Afshari
Mehrdad Afshari

Reputation: 422016

Short of using a C# parser, there's no direct way of doing it. You could compile the .cs file using CSharpCodeProvider (which only works if the file compiles on its own and you can tell all the referenced assemblies to the compiler) and use reflection on the resulting assembly.

Upvotes: 3

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