Get [DisplayName] attribute of a property in strongly-typed way

Good day!

I've such method to get [DisplayName] attribute value of a property (which is attached directly or using [MetadataType] attribute). I use it in rare cases where I need to get [DisplayName] in controller code.

public static class MetaDataHelper
{
    public static string GetDisplayName(Type dataType, string fieldName)
    {       
        // First look into attributes on a type and it's parents
        DisplayNameAttribute attr;
        attr = (DisplayNameAttribute)dataType.GetProperty(fieldName).GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DisplayNameAttribute), true).SingleOrDefault();

        // Look for [MetadataType] attribute in type hierarchy
        // http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1910532/attribute-isdefined-doesnt-see-attributes-applied-with-metadatatype-class
        if (attr == null)
        {
            MetadataTypeAttribute metadataType = (MetadataTypeAttribute)dataType.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(MetadataTypeAttribute), true).FirstOrDefault();
            if (metadataType != null)
            {
                var property = metadataType.MetadataClassType.GetProperty(fieldName);
                if (property != null)
                {
                    attr = (DisplayNameAttribute)property.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DisplayNameAttribute), true).SingleOrDefault();
                }
            }
        }
        return (attr != null) ? attr.DisplayName : String.Empty;
    }
}

It works, but it has two drawbacks:

It requires field name as string
It doesn't work if I want to get property of a property

Is it possible to overcome both problems using lambdas, something like we have in ASP.NET MVC:

Html.LabelFor(m => m.Property.Can.Be.Very.Complex.But.Strongly.Typed);

Update

Here is an updated and checked version from BuildStarted solution. It is modified to use


                    
                    
                        
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1 Answer

There are two ways to do this:

Models.Test test = new Models.Test();
string DisplayName = test.GetDisplayName(t => t.Name);

string DisplayName = Helpers.GetDisplayName<Models.Test>(t => t.Name);

The first one works by virtue of writing a generic extension method to any TModel (which is all types). This means it will be available on any object and not just your model. Not really recommended but nice because of it's concise syntax.

The second method requires you to pass in the Type of the model it is - which you're already doing but as a parameter instead. This method is required to define type via Generics because Func expects it.

Here are the methods for you to check out.

Static extension method to all objects

public static string GetDisplayName<TModel, TProperty>(this TModel model, Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression) {

    Type type = typeof(TModel);

    MemberExpression memberExpression = (MemberExpression)expression.Body;
    string propertyName = ((memberExpression.Member is PropertyInfo) ? memberExpression.Member.Name : null);

    // First look into attributes on a type and it's parents
    DisplayAttribute attr;
    attr = (DisplayAttribute)type.GetProperty(propertyName).GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DisplayAttribute), true).SingleOrDefault();

    // Look for [MetadataType] attribute in type hierarchy
    // http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1910532/attribute-isdefined-doesnt-see-attributes-applied-with-metadatatype-class
    if (attr == null) {
        MetadataTypeAttribute metadataType = (MetadataTypeAttribute)type.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(MetadataTypeAttribute), true).FirstOrDefault();
        if (metadataType != null) {
            var property = metadataType.MetadataClassType.GetProperty(propertyName);
            if (property != null) {
                attr = (DisplayAttribute)property.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DisplayNameAttrib


                        
                        
                            answered 2011-03-29T16:05:29.817

Get [DisplayName] attribute of a property in strongly-typed way

1 Answer

Static extension method to all objects

Your Answer