C# Get type of fixed field in unsafe struct with reflection

Question

I'm trying to get the field types of an unsafe struct using some fixed fields. The fixed fields FieldType do not return the actual type.

[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, Pack = 1)]
public unsafe struct MyStruct
{
   public UInt32 Field1;
   public fixed sbyte Field2[10];
   public UInt64 Field3;
}

void Test() 
{
   var theStruct = new MyStruct();
   string output = "";
   foreach (FieldInfo fi in theStruct.GetType().GetFields(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance))
   {
      output += fi.Name + ": " + fi.FieldType.ToString() + "\r\n";
   }

}

Output:

Field1: System.UInt32

Field2: TestProjectNS.MyStruct+<Field2>e__FixedBuffer0

Field3: System.UInt64

---

I'm looking for Field2 to tell me it's sbyte instead of TestProjectNS.MyStruct+<Field2>e__FixedBuffer0

Answer 1

The Fixed Size Buffer's underlying type can be retrieved through the FixedBufferAttribute, which is applied on the fixed size buffer statement.

foreach (FieldInfo fi in typeof(MyStruct).GetFields(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance))
{
    var attr = fi.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(FixedBufferAttribute), false);
    if(attr.Length > 0)
        output += fi.Name + ": " + ((FixedBufferAttribute)attr[0]).ElementType + "\r\n";
    else
        output += fi.Name + ": " + fi.FieldType + "\r\n";
}

Or the single field short version:

var type = typeof (MyStruct)
            .GetField("Field2")
            .GetCustomAttributes(typeof (FixedBufferAttribute), false)
            .Cast<FixedBufferAttribute>()
            .Single()
            .ElementType;

As CodeInChaos, I also needed to reflect it, but I do have the FixedBufferAttribute:

[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, Pack=1)]
public struct MyStruct
{
    public uint Field1;
    [FixedBuffer(typeof(sbyte), 10)]
    public <Field2>e__FixedBuffer0 Field2;
    public ulong Field3;
    // Nested Types
    [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, Size=10), CompilerGenerated, UnsafeValueType]
    public struct <Field2>e__FixedBuffer0
    {
       public sbyte FixedElementField;
    }
}

Awesome question!