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I've recently been tasked with adding logging statements to every method call in a solution. These log entries need to contain the class and method name.

I know I can use MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod() and the StackFrame.GetMethod() methods. Which is better? Is there a better (or more performant) way to get the class and method name?

Zachary Yates
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    *Every* method? There are easier ways to make your app ten thousand times slower or to generate a gigabyte of text a minute. – Hans Passant Aug 25 '10 at 16:56
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    My lot in life is only to do what the client asks. – Zachary Yates Aug 25 '10 at 17:02
  • there's a place in the consulting relationship for constructive criticism and, in fact, it's an important part of the job. I've worked on projects that had this kind of pervasive trace logging and it's generally resulted in everybody ignoring the logs unless they absolutely had to take the several hours it would require to dig through them. – Dan Bryant Aug 25 '10 at 17:22
  • @Dan, I mentioned it. I've had generally the same experience with this kind of logging. Usually needing it is indicative of a much deeper design issue (which this project definitely has). The overriding factor is that you have to take the most efficient path to shipping the software. I hate to admit it, but in this case, the client is right. – Zachary Yates Aug 25 '10 at 18:27

3 Answers3

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Well, the best/fastest way is to include a string in every function. That may not appear the most practical solution, but MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod() requires coding inside every method that using it anyway. i.e. You can write

string funcName = "MyClass.MyFunction(int, int)";

or you can write

string funcName = MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().Name

Now, if you want to get the Name of the function that called the current function (i.e., you want to do this in one spot in your logging function), then your only option is reading through the StackFrame.

Zachary Yates
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James Curran
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  • If I recall right, MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod() might also return different results based on any inlining/optimization done by the compiler, so hardcoding function names may be more reliable in that sense. – Adam Lear Aug 25 '10 at 16:54
  • you can automate including function name as string at build process – Andrey Aug 25 '10 at 17:01
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I have two suggestions:

  1. Use ready-made AOP frameworks (like http://www.sharpcrafters.com/ ) they can handle this easily

  2. Do a custom prebuild action where you replace some kind of stub in the beginning of every method:

    void PerformSomeAction() { //PUT_LOGGING_HERE }

then in custom tool replace those stubs with method names. This is guaranteed fastest method, but requires some investments.

Andrey
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this.getType().toString() should get you the class

About the method it seems stackFrame and methodbase are the most obvouis solutions, I cant comment on which is more efficient.

Raynos
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