why we use description attribute for class property in c#

Question

i saw in some code that use Description attribute for class property and i couldn't find reason of behavior in c# codding

 public class sample
    {
        [Description("description1")]
        public string PropertyOnne{ get; set; }

     }

for readability of code we can use xml summary for even property and i didn't understand what is difference between summary and Description attribute in class level.

You can use those e.g. for the descriptions displayed in the visual designer (WinForms) or in any other UI (WPF app). — dymanoid, Dec 17 '18 at 12:43
@JohnB xml summary https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/programming-guide/xmldoc/summary — Aref Zamani, Dec 17 '18 at 12:55
so you are comparing comments (not-compiled) to an attribute (compiled)? please do some basic background reading — jazb, Dec 17 '18 at 12:56

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 17 '18 at 12:45

This is for visual designers, they can display the description when referencing them.

Remark from the docs:

A visual designer can display the specified description when referencing the component member, such as in a Properties window. Call Description to access the value of this attribute.

Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.componentmodel.descriptionattribute?view=netframework-4.7.2

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 17 '18 at 12:52

Simple words, you can consider below explanation

The tag is used to generate documentation in XML for your Project at Compile time, this is also used by the visual studio for its intellisense database
The Description attribute used by the designer in order to understand the text, mostly at the bottom of the property window(for reference).

why we use description attribute for class property in c#

2 Answers2