c# - Recursively Get Properties & Child Properties Of A Class

Question

I was doing something like Recursively Get Properties & Child Properties Of An Object, but I wanted to use reflection recursively to get each properties. And I got the code from Recursively Print the properties.

The problem with the code is: it only goes one level down, I wonder how can you automatically get all the properties using reflection? I just made up the following sample Container code:

public class Container
{
    public Bottle MyBottle { get; set; }
    public List<Address> Addresses { get; set; }

    public Container()
    {
        Address a = new Address();
        a.AddressLine1 = "1 Main St";
        a.AddressLine2 = "2 Main St";
        Addresses = new List<Address>();
        Addresses.Add(a);

        MyBottle = new Bottle();
        MyBottle.BottleName = "Big bottle";
        MyBottle.BottageAge = 2;
    }
}

public class Bottle
{
    public string BottleName { get; set; }
    public int BottageAge { get; set; }
}

public class Address
{
    public string AddressLine1 { get; set; }
    public string AddressLine2 { get; set; }
    public List<SpecialFolder> SpecialFolders { get; set; }

    public Address()
    {
        SpecialFolders = new List<SpecialFolder>();
        SpecialFolder sf = new SpecialFolder();
        sf.TemplateFolder = Environment.SpecialFolder.Templates.ToString();
        sf.UserFolder = Environment.SpecialFolder.UserProfile.ToString();
        SpecialFolders.Add(sf);
    }
}

public class SpecialFolder
{
    public string TemplateFolder { get; set; }
    public string UserFolder { get; set; }
}

In the Main method:

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    Container c = new Container();
    PrintProperties(c);
}
public static void PrintProperties(object obj)
{
    PrintProperties(obj, 0);
}
public static void PrintProperties(object obj, int indent)
{

    if (obj == null) return;
    string indentString = new string(' ', indent);
    Type objType = obj.GetType();
    PropertyInfo[] properties = objType.GetProperties();
    foreach (PropertyInfo property in properties)
    {
        object propValue = property.GetValue(obj, null);
        if (property.PropertyType.Assembly == objType.Assembly)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("{0}{1}:", indentString, property.Name);

            PrintProperties(propValue, indent + 2);
        }
        else
        {
            Console.WriteLine("{0}{1}: {2}", indentString, property.Name, propValue);
        }
    }
}

I am hoping to get:

MyBottle:
      BottleName: Big bottle
      BottageAge: 2
Addresses:
      AddressLine1: 1 Main St
      AddressLine2: 2 Main St
      SpecialFolders:
            TemplateFolder: Templates
            UserFolder: UserProfile

The result I get now:

MyBottle:
  BottleName: Big bottle
  BottageAge: 2
Addresses: System.Collections.Generic.List`1[TreeViewReflectionExample.Address]

Can someone help me with the PrintProperties method? Thank you very much.

Answer 1

You have two problems with your code:

1. because of condition if (property.PropertyType.Assembly == objType.Assembly) you will omit System.Collections like List<>
2. you do not treat differently propValue that are collections. Hence it will print List properties, not its elements properties.

You can change that for example into:

public void PrintProperties(object obj, int indent)
{    
    if (obj == null) return;
    string indentString = new string(' ', indent);
    Type objType = obj.GetType();
    PropertyInfo[] properties = objType.GetProperties();
    foreach (PropertyInfo property in properties)
    {
        object propValue = property.GetValue(obj, null);
        var elems = propValue as IList;
        if (elems != null)
        {
            foreach (var item in elems)
            {
                PrintProperties(item, indent + 3);
            }
        }
        else
        {
            // This will not cut-off System.Collections because of the first check
            if (property.PropertyType.Assembly == objType.Assembly)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("{0}{1}:", indentString, property.Name);

                PrintProperties(propValue, indent + 2);
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("{0}{1}: {2}", indentString, property.Name, propValue);
            }
        }
    }
}