Read elements of an array of objects using C# reflection

Question

How can I get the list of elements and datatypes of an array of an object in c# with reflections?

Scenario: I have a method with an array parameter in my web service (asmx). Using reflection I am reading the method parameters and loop through the properties. Here is my code:

---

Example: I have a webservice http://localhost/services/myservice.asmx. It has a method string GetServiceData(context mycontext). context class has following properties

- string name
- Account[] accounts

Account in turn has

- string acct_name
- string acct_address

I need to read the service dynamically to generate the following output

<GetServiceData>
    <mycontext>
        <name>string</name>
        <accounts>
            <acct_name>string</acct_name>
            <acct_address>string</acct_address>
        </accounts>
    </mycontext>
</GetServiceData>

To do so I am dynamically reading the MethodInfo and get all the parameters. Then I loop through the parameters to get the list of all the properties and the datatypes. If there is an array element in the properties then I need to get all the elements of that array element.

Solution (Thanks to Ani)

---

foreach (MethodInfo method in methods)
{
    sb.Append("<" + method.Name + ">");
    ParametetInfo parameters = method.GetParameters();
    foreach(ParameterInfo parameter in parameters)
    {
        sb.Append("<" + parameter.Name + ">");
        if (IsCustomType(parameter.ParameterType))
        {
           sb.Append(GetProperties(parameter.ParameterType));
        }
        else
        {
            sb.Append(parameter.ParameterType.Name);
        }
        sb.Append("</" + parameter.Name + ">");
    }
    sb.Append("</" + sMethodName + ">");
}

GetProperties() method reads the type and actually loop through each property and add it to string object. In this method I want to check if the property is an array then get all the elements and type for it.

public static string GetProperties(Type type)
{
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    foreach(PropertyInfo property in type.GetProperties())
    {
        sb.Append("<" + property.Name + ">");

        if (property.PropertyType.IsArray)
        {
            Type t = property.PropertyType.GetElementType();
            sb.Append(GetProperties(t));
        }
        else
        {
            sb.Append(property.PropertyType.name);
        }
    }
    sb.ToString();
}

Answer 1

I think you're for looking for theType.IsArray property (indicates whether a type is an array) and the Type.GetElementType method (gets, amongst other things, the element-type of an array). Do note that the element-type of the array isn't necessarily the same as the specific run-time type of each of the elements of the array; polymorphism could come into play.

Of course, to simply get the values, you can rely on array-covariance: cast the value of the property (I assume you're using PropertyInfo.GetValue somewhere) to an object[] and foreach that as usual.

EDIT:

Your update is quite confusing. If you already have an object that you think might be an array; you might as well do:

object obj = ...

object[] array = obj as object[];

if(array != null)
{
   foreach(object item in array)
   {
      ...
   }      
}

It really appears like you're confusing meta-data with real-data here. You can't actually enumerate any array if all you have is a System.Type that represents an array-type.

EDIT:

I think I've finally understood what you want to do. Just use Type.GetElementType to get the array's element-type, and then get that type's properties (recursively?). You're probably going to change your design a bit to able to get the XML output you want. XML represents a hierarchy; but your method's return-type is just a Dictionary<string, string>, which is a flat data-structure.