Recursively Get Properties & Child Properties Of A Class
I was doing something like Recursively Get Properties & Child Properties Of An Object, but I wanted to use reflection recursively to get each properties. And I got the code from Recursively Print the properties.
The problem with the code is: it only goes one level down, I wonder how can you automatically get all the properties using reflection? I just made up the following sample Container code:
public class Container
{
public Bottle MyBottle { get; set; }
public List<Address> Addresses { get; set; }
public Container()
{
Address a = new Address();
a.AddressLine1 = "1 Main St";
a.AddressLine2 = "2 Main St";
Addresses = new List<Address>();
Addresses.Add(a);
MyBottle = new Bottle();
MyBottle.BottleName = "Big bottle";
MyBottle.BottageAge = 2;
}
}
public class Bottle
{
public string BottleName { get; set; }
public int BottageAge { get; set; }
}
public class Address
{
public string AddressLine1 { get; set; }
public string AddressLine2 { get; set; }
public List<SpecialFolder> SpecialFolders { get; set; }
public Address()
{
SpecialFolders = new List<SpecialFolder>();
SpecialFolder sf = new SpecialFolder();
sf.TemplateFolder = Environment.SpecialFolder.Templates.ToString();
sf.UserFolder = Environment.SpecialFolder.UserProfile.ToString();
SpecialFolders.Add(sf);
}
}
public class SpecialFolder
{
public string TemplateFolder { get; set; }
public string UserFolder { get; set; }
}
In the Main method:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Container c = new Container();
PrintProperties(c);
}
public static void PrintProperties(object obj)
{
PrintProperties(obj, 0);
}
public static void PrintProperties(object obj, int indent)
{
if (obj == null) return;
string indentString = new string(' ', indent);
Type objType = obj.GetType();
PropertyInfo[] properties = objType.GetProperties();
foreach (PropertyInfo property in properties)
{
object propValue = property.GetValue(obj, null);
if (property.PropertyType.Assembly == objType.Assembly)
{
Console.WriteLine("{0}{1}:", indentString, property.Name);
PrintProperties(propValue, indent + 2);
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("{0}{1}: {2}", indentString, property.Name, propValue);
}
}
}
I am hoping to get:
MyBottle:
BottleName: Big bottle
BottageAge: 2
Addresses:
AddressLine1: 1 Main St
AddressLine2: 2 Main St
SpecialFolders:
TemplateFolder: Templates
UserFolder: UserProfile
The result I get now:
MyBottle:
BottleName: Big bottle
BottageAge: 2
Addresses: System.Collections.Generic.List`1[TreeViewReflectionExample.Address]
Can someone help me with the PrintProperties method? Thank you very much.
Solution 1:
You have two problems with your code:
- because of condition
if (property.PropertyType.Assembly == objType.Assembly)you will omitSystem.CollectionslikeList<> - you do not treat differently
propValuethat are collections. Hence it will printListproperties, not its elements properties.
You can change that for example into:
public void PrintProperties(object obj, int indent)
{
if (obj == null) return;
string indentString = new string(' ', indent);
Type objType = obj.GetType();
PropertyInfo[] properties = objType.GetProperties();
foreach (PropertyInfo property in properties)
{
object propValue = property.GetValue(obj, null);
var elems = propValue as IList;
if (elems != null)
{
foreach (var item in elems)
{
PrintProperties(item, indent + 3);
}
}
else
{
// This will not cut-off System.Collections because of the first check
if (property.PropertyType.Assembly == objType.Assembly)
{
Console.WriteLine("{0}{1}:", indentString, property.Name);
PrintProperties(propValue, indent + 2);
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("{0}{1}: {2}", indentString, property.Name, propValue);
}
}
}
}
Solution 2:
You want to handle primitive types and strings separately, and loop over enumerables instead of just taking their ToString() value. So your code could be updated to:
public void PrintProperties(object obj, int indent)
{
if (obj == null) return;
string indentString = new string(' ', indent);
Type objType = obj.GetType();
PropertyInfo[] properties = objType.GetProperties();
foreach (PropertyInfo property in properties)
{
object propValue = property.GetValue(obj, null);
if(property.PropertyType.IsPrimitive || property.PropertyType == typeof(string))
Console.WriteLine("{0}{1}: {2}", indentString, property.Name, propValue);
else if (typeof(IEnumerable).IsAssignableFrom(property.PropertyType))
{
Console.WriteLine("{0}{1}:", indentString, property.Name);
IEnumerable enumerable = (IEnumerable)propValue;
foreach(object child in enumerable)
PrintProperties(child, indent + 2);
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("{0}{1}:", indentString, property.Name);
PrintProperties(propValue, indent + 2);
}
}
}
Solution 3:
Based on Konrad Kokosa's answer:
private string ObjectToString(object obj, int indent = 0)
{
if (obj is null)
{
return "";
}
var sb = new StringBuilder();
string indentString = new string(' ', indent);
Type objType = obj.GetType();
foreach (PropertyInfo property in objType.GetProperties())
{
object propValue = property.GetValue(obj);
var elems = propValue as IList;
if (elems != null)
{
foreach (var item in elems)
{
sb.Append($"{indentString}- {property.Name}\n");
sb.Append(ObjectToString(item, indent + 4));
}
}
else if (property.Name != "ExtensionData")
{
sb.Append($"{indentString}- {property.Name}={propValue}\n");
if (property.PropertyType.Assembly == objType.Assembly)
{
sb.Append(ObjectToString(propValue, indent + 4));
}
}
}
return sb.ToString();
}
UPDATE
Edit the code based on this older question: TargetParameterCountException when enumerating through properties of string
private string ObjectToString(object obj, int indent = 0)
{
var sb = new StringBuilder();
if (obj != null)
{
string indentString = new string(' ', indent);
if (obj is string)
{
sb.Append($"{indentString}- {obj}\n");
}
else if (obj is Array)
{
var elems = obj as IList;
sb.Append($"{indentString}- [{elems.Count}] :\n");
for (int i = 0; i < elems.Count; i++)
{
sb.Append(ObjectToString(elems[i], indent + 4));
}
}
else
{
Type objType = obj.GetType();
PropertyInfo[] props = objType.GetProperties();
foreach (PropertyInfo prop in props)
{
if (prop.GetIndexParameters().Length == 0)
{
object propValue = prop.GetValue(obj);
var elems = propValue as IList;
if (elems != null)
{
foreach (var item in elems)
{
sb.Append($"{indentString}- {prop.Name} :\n");
sb.Append(ObjectToString(item, indent + 4));
}
}
else if (prop.Name != "ExtensionData")
{
sb.Append($"{indentString}- {prop.Name} = {propValue}\n");
if (prop.PropertyType.Assembly == objType.Assembly)
{
sb.Append(ObjectToString(propValue, indent + 4));
}
}
}
else
{
sb.Append($"{indentString}- {prop.Name} ({prop.PropertyType.Name}): <Indexed>\n");
}
}
}
}
return sb.ToString();
}
UPDATE 2
public static string ObjectToString(object obj, int indent = 0)
{
var sb = new StringBuilder();
if (obj != null)
{
string indentString = new string(' ', indent);
if (obj is string || obj.IsNumber())
{
sb.Append($"{indentString}- {obj}\n");
}
else if (obj.GetType().BaseType == typeof(Enum))
{
sb.Append($"{indentString}- {obj.ToString()}\n");
}
else if (obj is Array)
{
var elems = obj as IList;
sb.Append($"{indentString}- [{elems.Count}] :\n");
for (int i = 0; i < elems.Count; i++)
{
sb.Append(ObjectToString(elems[i], indent + 4));
}
}
else
{
Type objType = obj.GetType();
PropertyInfo[] props = objType.GetProperties();
foreach (PropertyInfo prop in props)
{
if (prop.GetIndexParameters().Length == 0)
{
object propValue = prop.GetValue(obj);
var elems = propValue as IList;
if (elems != null)
{
foreach (var item in elems)
{
sb.Append($"{indentString}- {prop.Name} :\n");
sb.Append(ObjectToString(item, indent + 4));
}
}
else if (prop.Name != "ExtensionData")
{
sb.Append($"{indentString}- {prop.Name} = {propValue}\n");
if (prop.PropertyType.Assembly == objType.Assembly)
{
sb.Append(ObjectToString(propValue, indent + 4));
}
}
}
else if (objType.GetProperty("Item") != null)
{
int count = -1;
if (objType.GetProperty("Count") != null &&
objType.GetProperty("Count").PropertyType == typeof(int))
{
count = (int)objType.GetProperty("Count").GetValue(obj, null);
}
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
{
object val = prop.GetValue(obj, new object[] { i });
sb.Append(ObjectToString(val, indent + 4));
}
}
}
}
}
return sb.ToString();
}
public static bool IsNumber(this object value)
{
return value is sbyte
|| value is byte
|| value is short
|| value is ushort
|| value is int
|| value is uint
|| value is long
|| value is ulong
|| value is float
|| value is double
|| value is decimal;
}
Solution 4:
I've invested a lot of time to solve this problem. There is a lot of type-specific formatting required to properly dump all property types.
I can recommend you having a look at FormatValue method in this file on github. It is the main logic that writes property values to string: https://github.com/thomasgalliker/ObjectDumper/blob/ada64c7e51fedf57731006959358aa890b5e4344/ObjectDumper/Internal/ObjectDumperCSharp.cs#L98
You can also use this code as a nuget package: https://www.nuget.org/packages/ObjectDumper.NET
Solution 5:
It works for all cases except propValue is string[]. You will get the exception "Parameter Count Mismatch" in line: object propValue = property.GetValue(obj, null);
To fix this issue you can use this code with a little fix:
private void PrintProperties(object obj, int indent)
{
if (obj == null) return;
string indentString = new string(' ', indent);
Type objType = obj.GetType();
PropertyInfo[] properties = objType.GetProperties();
foreach (PropertyInfo property in properties)
{
object propValue = property.GetValue(obj, null);
var elems = propValue as IList;
if ((elems != null) && !(elems is string[]) )
{
foreach (var item in elems)
{
PrintProperties(item, indent + 3);
}
}
else
{
// This will not cut-off System.Collections because of the first check
if (property.PropertyType.Assembly == objType.Assembly)
{
LogToWindow(String.Format("{0}{1}:", indentString, property.Name));
PrintProperties(propValue, indent + 2);
}
else
{
if (propValue is string[])
{
var str = new StringBuilder();
foreach (string item in (string[])propValue)
{
str.AppendFormat("{0}; ", item);
}
propValue = str.ToString();
str.Clear();
}
LogToWindow(String.Format("{0}{1}: {2}", indentString, property.Name, propValue));
}
}
}
}