Mono.Cecil - How to get custom attributes

Question

I am trying to use Cecil to inspect the attributes associated with a given method. It seems to find it, but I cannot get its name using the following code:

AssemblyDefinition assembly = AssemblyFactory.GetAssembly(pathBin);
assembly.MainModule.Types[0].Methods[1].CustomAttributes[0].ToString()

I know this must be the attribute I've set my function to, because when I remove it from the dll, the second line of code will turn out to null. What I'd like to do is be able to get the attribute's name. Currently the second line of code will return just a "Mono.Cecil.CustomAttribute". I'd guess there should be a way of getting an attribute's name(class type) name, right?

Thanks!

Answer 1

A CustomAttribute is an instance of a System.Attribute derived Type, so ToString() will do whatever the author decided.

If you want to know about attribute types you should ask for their type:

typeInfo.GetCustomAttributes(false)[0].GetType().ToString() ;

I haven't seen this property CustomAttributes you are using, so I rather used the method MemberInfo.GetCustomAttributes(bool) which I always use.

Answer 2

I had trouble with this when writing MoMA as well. Here is the code it uses:

AssemblyDefinition assembly = AssemblyFactory.GetAssembly(pathBin);
assembly.MainModule.Types[0].Methods[1].CustomAttributes[0].Constructor.DeclaringType.ToString()