C# pass any method as a parameter

Question

When logging, you always get entangled in string literals.

I solved that nicely for properties, fields and variables by passing an Expression<Func<T>> expression (as explained here), so you can do things like this:

public void Demo(string someArgument)
{
    LogFrameWork.LogLine("Demo"); // goal is to get rid of these string literals
    LogFramework.Log(() => someArgument);
}

I want to do something similar for the method Demo itself:

public void Demo(string someArgument)
{
    LogFramework.Log(this.Demo);
}

I tried things like this:

public static void Log(Delegate method)
{
    string methodName = method.Method.Name;
    LogLine(methodName);
}

and this:

public static void Log(Action method)
{
    string methodName = method.Method.Name;
    LogLine(methodName);
}

But I get compiler errors like these:

Argument 1: cannot convert from 'method group' to 'System.Delegate' 
Argument 1: cannot convert from 'method group' to 'System.Action'   

I could introduce a bunch of overloads using Func<...> and Action<...>, but that sounds overly complex.

Is there a way to cover this for any method with any number of parameters and an optional result?

--jeroen

PS: I think this question might have some relevance here, but no answers that got me a 'aha' feeling :-)

Answer 1

You can also achieve this without using ExpressionTrees through System.Diagnostics.StackTrace.

StackTrace trace = new StackTrace();

And then:

trace.GetFrame(0).GetMethod().Name

To get the MethodInfo and then name of the current method, or:

trace.GetFrame(1).GetMethod().Name 

To get the calling method.

Answer 2

Instead of trying to pass the method in as a parameter to your logger, look at it from the perspective of having the logger identify the calling method.

Here's an (pseudo) example:

Logger Class

public void Debug( string message )
{
  message = string.Format( "{0}: {1}", GetCallingMethodInfo(), message );
  // logging stuff
}

/// <summary>
/// Gets the application name and method that called the logger.
/// </summary>
/// <returns></returns>
private static string GetCallingMethodInfo()
{
  // we should be looking at the stack 2 frames in the past:
  // 1. for the calling method in this class
  // 2. for the calling method that called the method in this class
  MethodBase method = new StackFrame( 2 ).GetMethod();
  string name = method.Name;
  string type = method.DeclaringType.Name;

  return string.Format( "{0}.{1}", type, name );
}

Anywhere that uses the logger:

// resides in class Foo
public void SomeMethod()
{
  logger.Debug("Start");
}

The output from the logger will then be: Foo.SomeMethod: Start

Answer 3

This is much harder than it looks. I think you might be best with the generic Func and Action overloads, but there is a way to do this with expression trees. Here's an example in LINQPad:

public static void Log(Expression<Action> expr)
{
    Console.WriteLine(((MethodCallExpression)expr.Body).Method.Name);
}

void Main()
{
    Log(() => DoIt());
    Log(() => DoIt2(null));
    Log(() => DoIt3());
}

public void DoIt()
{
    Console.WriteLine ("Do It!");
}

public void DoIt2(string s)
{
    Console.WriteLine ("Do It 2!" + s);
}

public int DoIt3()
{
    Console.WriteLine ("Do It 3!");
    return 3;
}

This outputs:

DoIt
DoIt2
DoIt3

Note that I had to use lambdas and specify dummy arguments when calling the Log method.

This is based on Fyodor Soikin's excellent answer.