Using Reflection to analyze Parameters and their values

Question

I've seen older posts here on SO, about one year old which would mean that they do not really cover .NET 4 or maybe even 3.5 on this topic. So here goes.

If you with reflection were to fetch parameters for the current method

ParameterInfo[] methodParams = MethodInfo.GetCurrentMethod().GetParameters();

Looping through each parameter will let you fetch the parameter-name however, there is only a "DefaultValue" which I guess is there because of the new Dynamic Parameters in .NET 4.

However, my question is; Is it still not possible to get the method parameter values without digging into the debugger API?

I know that there might be a design flaw if you even need to consider using this.

I think, I answered a very similar question not so long ago: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2062883/is-there-a-way-to-enumerate-passed-method-paramters/2066654#2066654 As you said, not without design flaws, though. — Alexandra Rusina, Jan 27 '10 at 19:20

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 27 '10 at 14:04

3

It is not possible to get the current parameter values without using the Profiling API.

MethodInfo objects are per-method, not per-call. There is no way to connect a MethodInfo with a given stack frame.

In addition, in Release builds, the parameter locals can be optimized out, so the values to not necessarily exist.

The DefaultValue property can be non-null in VB parameters, which already supports default values.

answered Jan 27 '10 at 14:04

SLaks

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Is there a huge performance loss in doing that? Do you need to compile the project for debugging? – Filip Ekberg Jan 27 '10 at 14:05
Using the Profiling API to get the value and not compiling in release-mode. It feels like it's not worth it. – Filip Ekberg Jan 27 '10 at 14:08
Correct, especially because an application can't profile itself, so you'd need two EXE files. – SLaks Jan 27 '10 at 14:09

Using Reflection to analyze Parameters and their values

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