Getting all properties, their data types, values and names from specified non-static class (C#)

Question

We have a test class:

class Animal
{
    public string AnimalName { get; set; }
    public string AnimalType { get; set; }
    public int AnimalAgeInMonths { get; set; }
}

and an instance to the class:

Animal animal = new Animal();
animal.AnimalName = null; // No name yet
animal.AnimalType = "Sheep";
animal.AnimalAgeInMonths = 7;

So I need a method that returns System.Collections.Generic.List<(string[], string[], string[])>. First string array represents names of all properties (i.e. AnimalName, AnimalType, etc), second array - values (i.e. null, Sheep, etc), and third array - data type, for example:

• System.Int32 for int
• System.Single for float
• System.String for string
• etc

(these can be generated with the typeof keyword).

So overall, I need a method like this:

public List<(string[], string[], string[])> GetClassPropertyInfo(object Class)

which can be called like this:

GetClassPropertyInfo(animal);

Best regards,
-winscripter.

Answer 1

The following will get the name, type and value of each property (as strings) - you may use this as a starting point. You can then store the name, type and value in any structure you need and return it. Hope that helps.

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Reflection;

class Animal
{
    public string AnimalName { get; set; }
    public string AnimalType { get; set; }
    public int AnimalAgeInMonths { get; set; }
    public int[] array { get; set; } 
}

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {

        Animal animal = new Animal();
        animal.AnimalName = null; // No name yet
        animal.AnimalType = "Sheep";
        animal.AnimalAgeInMonths = 7;
        animal.array = new int[] { 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 };
        
        class_info( animal );
            
    }
    
    static void class_info(object Class)
    {
        String val;
        
        foreach (PropertyInfo propertyInfo in Class.GetType().GetProperties())
        {
            // Property Name ...
            Console.WriteLine( propertyInfo.Name );

            // Property type (as string) ...
            Console.WriteLine( propertyInfo.PropertyType.ToString() );

            // Property value (as string) ...
            if ( propertyInfo.GetValue(Class, null) is null ) 
            {
                val = "null";
                Console.WriteLine( val );
            }
            else
            {
                // Property is an array, show values (as strings) ...
                if (propertyInfo.PropertyType.IsArray)
                {

                    IEnumerable array = propertyInfo.GetValue( Class, null ) as IEnumerable;

                    if ( array is null )
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine( "Array is null" );
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine("Array values");
                        Console.WriteLine("------------");

                        foreach (var element in array)
                            Console.WriteLine(element.ToString());
                    }

                }
                else
                {
                   val = propertyInfo.GetValue(Class, null).ToString();
                   Console.WriteLine( val );
                }
            }

        }  
        
    }
    
}