Get attribute values from property and list values without knowing the attribute type

Question

I want to pass in the attribute name and return the value. This will be in a generic util and it will not know the attribute type.

Update This is the actual working code if someone needs to do this. I needed a way to have the core code parse the attributes without knowing what they were.

public void LoadPropertiesToGrid(BaseGridPropertyModel model)
{
    foreach (PropertyInfo prop in ReflectionUtil.FindPublicPropeties(model))
    {
        object editTyp = ReflectionUtil.GetPropertyAttributes(prop, "EditorType"); 
        object rowIdx = ReflectionUtil.GetPropertyAttributes(prop, "ColIndex");
        object name = ReflectionUtil.GetPropertyAttributes(prop, "Name");
        object visible = ReflectionUtil.GetPropertyAttributes(prop, "Visible");
        ConfigureColumn((string) name, (int) rowIdx, (bool) visible, (string) editTyp);
     }
}
[Serializable]
public class CanvasPropertiesViewModel : BaseGridPropertyModel
{
    [PropertiesGrid(Name = "TEsting Name 0", ColIndex = 0)]
    public string StringData1 { get; set; }

    [PropertiesGrid(Name = "TEsting Name 2", ColIndex = 2)]
    public string StringData2 { get; set; }

    [PropertiesGrid(Name = "TEsting Name 1", ColIndex = 1)]
    public string StringData3 { get; set; }
}
[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.All, Inherited = false, AllowMultiple = true)]
public sealed class PropertiesGridAttribute : Attribute
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Editor type
    /// </summary>
    public Type EditorType { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Sets Column Index
    /// </summary>
    public int ColIndex { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Visible to Grid
    /// </summary>
    public bool Visible { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    /// Dispaly Name of the property
    /// </summary>
    public string Name { get; set; }
}
public static object GetPropertyAttributes(PropertyInfo prop, string attributeName)
{
    // look for an attribute that takes one constructor argument
    foreach (CustomAttributeData attribData in prop.GetCustomAttributesData())
    {
        string typeName = attribData.Constructor.DeclaringType.Name;
        //if (attribData.ConstructorArguments.Count == 1 && (typeName == attributeName || typeName == attributeName + "Attribute"))
        //{
        //    return attribData.ConstructorArguments[0].Value;
        //}
        foreach (CustomAttributeNamedArgument att in attribData.NamedArguments)
        {
            if(att.GetPropertyValue<string>("MemberName") == attributeName)
            {
                return att.TypedValue.Value;
            }
        }
    }
    return null;
}

//PropertyExpressionParser 
public static TRet GetPropertyValue<TRet>(this object obj, string propertyPathName)
{
    if (obj == null)
    {
        throw new ArgumentNullException("obj");
    }

    string[] parts = propertyPathName.Split('.');
    string path = propertyPathName;
    object root = obj;

    if (parts.Length > 1)
    {
        path = parts[parts.Length - 1];
        parts = parts.TakeWhile((p, i) => i < parts.Length - 1).ToArray();
        string path2 = String.Join(".", parts);
        root = obj.GetPropertyValue<object>(path2);
    }

    var sourceType = root.GetType();
    var value = (TRet)sourceType.GetProperty(path).GetValue(root, null);
    return value;
}

Solution

If you mean "given an attribute that takes one parameter, give me that value", for example:

[DisplayName("abc")] <===== "abc"
[Browsable(true)] <===== true

then this is easiest in .NET 4.5, via the new CustomAttributeData API:

using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Reflection;

public static class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        PropertyInfo prop = typeof(Foo).GetProperty("Bar");
        var val = GetPropertyAttributes(prop, "DisplayName");
    }
    public static object GetPropertyAttributes(PropertyInfo prop, string attributeName)
    {
        // look for an attribute that takes one constructor argument
        foreach(CustomAttributeData attribData in prop.GetCustomAttributesData()) 
        {
            string typeName = attribData.Constructor.DeclaringType.Name;
            if(attribData.ConstructorArguments.Count == 1 &&
                (typeName == attributeName || typeName == attributeName + "Attribute"))
            {
                return attribData.ConstructorArguments[0].Value;
            }
        }
        return null;
    }
}

class Foo
{
    [DisplayName("abc")]
    public string Bar { get; set; }
}

Comments

[Steve Coleman]

This would put me in the same position of knowing the interface type. Though I could create the interface in the core code to access the values...

[Steve Konves]

In essence, knowing that a class (in this can a custom attribute) has a Value property is the same as declaring an interface with a Value property. If you don't have the ability to implement an interface with your custom attributes, you can still use reflection to find a property named Value.

[Steve Coleman]

This works but it was not quite what I needed. I updated my questions with the answer based on your code. Thanks you got what I needed!

[Steve Coleman]

Yep, That's what I did. Thanks for the help.