C# Reflection - GetCustomAttributes for Type gets attribute from parent class

Question

Let's say I have two classes, the base class has a custom attribute:

[MyAttribute]
public class BaseModel
{
    public string Id { get; set; }

    public string Name { get; set; }
}

public class InheritedModel : BaseModel
{
    public string CompanyName { get; set; }

    public int Amount { get; set; }
}

When I'm working with inherited class, like

// member.DeclaringType is InheritedModel 

if (member.DeclaringType.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(MyAttribute)).Any())
{
   // returns true
}

I expect this should be false because InheritedModel has not MyAttribute attribute directly.

It it correct behaviour? How can I divide parents and inheritors in condition above?

You can change this behaviour by setting `Inherited = false` in AttributeUsage — Aleks Andreev, May 22 '19 at 10:57
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1240960/how-does-inheritance-work-for-attributes — Renat, May 22 '19 at 10:57
Possible duplicate of [How does inheritance work for Attributes?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1240960/how-does-inheritance-work-for-attributes) — Ahmed Yousif, May 22 '19 at 10:58

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 22 '19 at 11:46

2

GetCustromAttributes has an overload which lets you specify if you want to search ancestor classes as well.

It seems to default to true (though it doesn't say in the docs) so try passing false

member.DeclaringType.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(MyAttribute), false).Any()

edited May 22 '19 at 11:46

Mong Zhu

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answered May 22 '19 at 10:58

Karl-Johan Sjögren

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C# Reflection - GetCustomAttributes for Type gets attribute from parent class

1 Answers1