Loop through all the resources in a .resx file

Is there a way to loop through all the resources in a .resx file in C#?

Solution 1:

You should always use the resource manager and not read files directly to ensure globalization is taken into account.

using System.Collections;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Resources;

...

/* Reference to your resources class -- may be named differently in your case */
ResourceManager MyResourceClass =
    new ResourceManager(typeof(Resources));

ResourceSet resourceSet =
    MyResourceClass.ResourceManager.GetResourceSet(CultureInfo.CurrentUICulture, true, true);
foreach (DictionaryEntry entry in resourceSet)
{
    string resourceKey = entry.Key.ToString();
    object resource = entry.Value;
}

Solution 2:

Blogged about it on my blog :) Short version is, to find the full names of the resources(unless you already know them):

var assembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();

foreach (var resourceName in assembly.GetManifestResourceNames())
    System.Console.WriteLine(resourceName);

To use all of them for something:

foreach (var resourceName in assembly.GetManifestResourceNames())
{
    using(var stream = assembly.GetManifestResourceStream(resourceName))
    {
        // Do something with stream
    }
}

To use resources in other assemblies than the executing one, you'd just get a different assembly object by using some of the other static methods of the Assembly class. Hope it helps :)

Solution 3:

Use ResXResourceReader Class

ResXResourceReader rsxr = new ResXResourceReader("your resource file path");

// Iterate through the resources and display the contents to the console.
foreach (DictionaryEntry d in rsxr)
{
    Console.WriteLine(d.Key.ToString() + ":\t" + d.Value.ToString());
}

Solution 4:

The minute you add a resource .RESX file to your project, Visual Studio will create a Designer.cs with the same name, creating a a class for you with all the items of the resource as static properties. You can see all the names of the resource when you type the dot in the editor after you type the name of the resource file.

Alternatively, you can use reflection to loop through these names.

Type resourceType = Type.GetType("AssemblyName.Resource1");
PropertyInfo[] resourceProps = resourceType.GetProperties(
    BindingFlags.NonPublic | 
    BindingFlags.Static | 
    BindingFlags.GetProperty);

foreach (PropertyInfo info in resourceProps)
{
    string name = info.Name;
    object value = info.GetValue(null, null);  // object can be an image, a string whatever
    // do something with name and value
}

This method is obviously only usable when the RESX file is in scope of the current assembly or project. Otherwise, use the method provided by "pulse".

The advantage of this method is that you call the actual properties that have been provided for you, taking into account any localization if you wish. However, it is rather redundant, as normally you should use the type safe direct method of calling the properties of your resources.