Actually, I should've asked: how can I do this and remain CLS Compliant? Because the only way I can think of doing this is as follows, but using either __makeref
, FieldInfo.SetValueDirect
or just System.TypedReference
in general invalidates CLS Compliance.
// code illustrating the issue:
TestFields fields = new TestFields { MaxValue = 1234 }; // test struct with one field
FieldInfo info = fields.GetType().GetField("MaxValue"); // get the FieldInfo
// actual magic, no boxing, not CLS compliant:
TypedReference reference = __makeref(fields);
info.SetValueDirect(reference, 4096);
The compliant counterpart of SetValueDirect
is SetValue
, but it takes an object as the target, hence my struct will be boxed, making me setting a value on a copy, not the original variable.
A generic counterpart for SetValue
doesn't exist as far as I know. Is there any other way of setting the field of a (reference to a) struct through reflection?
Make cls-compliant wrapper on SetValueDirect:
var item = new MyStruct { X = 10 };
item.GetType().GetField("X").SetValueForValueType(ref item, 4);
[CLSCompliant(true)]
static class Hlp
{
public static void SetValueForValueType<T>(this FieldInfo field, ref T item, object value) where T : struct
{
field.SetValueDirect(__makeref(item), value);
}
}
For properties, if you have the struct and property types, you can create a delegate from the property setter. As you point out, fields don't have setters, but you can create one that behaves exactly the same:
delegate void RefAction<T1, T2>(ref T1 arg1, T2 arg2);
struct TestFields
{
public int MaxValue;
public int MaxValueProperty
{
get { return MaxValue; }
set { MaxValue = value; }
}
};
static class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var propertyInfo = typeof(TestFields).GetProperty("MaxValueProperty");
var propertySetter = (RefAction<TestFields, int>)Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(RefAction<TestFields, int>), propertyInfo.GetSetMethod());
var fieldInfo = typeof(TestFields).GetField("MaxValue");
var dynamicMethod = new DynamicMethod(String.Empty, typeof(void), new Type[] { fieldInfo.ReflectedType.MakeByRefType(), fieldInfo.FieldType }, true);
var ilGenerator = dynamicMethod.GetILGenerator();
ilGenerator.Emit(OpCodes.Ldarg_0);
ilGenerator.Emit(OpCodes.Ldarg_1);
ilGenerator.Emit(OpCodes.Stfld, fieldInfo);
ilGenerator.Emit(OpCodes.Ret);
var fieldSetter = (RefAction<TestFields, int>)dynamicMethod.CreateDelegate(typeof(RefAction<TestFields, int>));
var fields = new TestFields { MaxValue = 1234 };
propertySetter(ref fields, 5678);
fieldSetter(ref fields, 90);
Console.WriteLine(fields.MaxValue);
}
}
Not sure if this will fit into your constraints, but by declaring the struct instance as ValueType
, SetValue
will work as expected.
ValueType fields = new TestFields { MaxValue = 1234 }; // test struct with one field
FieldInfo info = typeof(TestFields).GetField("MaxValue"); // get the FieldInfo
info.SetValue(fields, 4096);
Console.WriteLine(((TestFields)fields).MaxValue); // 4096
See this answer for some more info.