why are some .NET methods written wrapped in brackets?

Question

I am new to programming and this might be a very elementary question, but I was wondering what items placed inside [brackets], such as [TestMethod] and [CodedUITest] are called and what their role is in .NET. Why is it that these methods are written in this manner?

Thanks

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2968597/what-is-brackets-in-net — Trent, Feb 11 '14 at 03:31
Have a look at [attributes](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20346/net-what-are-attributes) — StuartLC, Feb 11 '14 at 03:32

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 11 '14 at 03:32

5

Those are called Attributes. They give your code metadata the IDE can use to do things like know which methods are unit tests, how to serialize a class, or what to show first in intellisense prompts.

answered Feb 11 '14 at 03:32

Joel Coehoorn

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IDE and compiler and CLR and other stuff** :) – Simon Whitehead Feb 11 '14 at 03:34

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 11 '14 at 03:33

They are Attributes

Attributes can be placed on most any declaration, though a 
specific attribute might restrict the types of declarations on which it is valid.
In C#, you specify an attribute by placing the name of the attribute, enclosed in square brackets ([]), above 
the declaration of the entity to which it applies. In Visual Basic, an attribute
is enclosed in angle brackets (< >). It must appear immediately before the element to

which it is applied, on the same line.

Attributes

Introduction to Attributes

why are some .NET methods written wrapped in brackets?

2 Answers2