Using DisplayAttribute of column in a Controller

Question

I have defined [Display(Name = "From Date")] for columns in a Model and I am using it from a View with the help of tag helpers like asp-for and @Html.DisplayNameFor().

But I am exporting data to an Excel sheet, and that code is in a controller. Now to set the column header in excel I want to take column names from [Display(Name = "From Date")] instead of hard coding it. How can I use it?

To make my point more clear, my existing code is:

row.CreateCell(1).SetCellValue("PCard Dt");

Now, I want to replace the hard-coded string "PCard Dt" with [Display(Name = "From Date")].

I tried various answers on Google, but it's not serving my purpose.

Would be great if you can attach your existing code for the attempt. From my perspective, you need Reflection to iterate the properties in the class and retrieve the `DisplayAttribute` info applied to the property. — Yong Shun, Dec 19 '22 at 03:54
I have edited my question to include a code, please refer it, hope this will help — Vimal Upadhyay, Dec 19 '22 at 04:00

Yong Shun · Answer 1 · 2022-12-19T04:39:28.527

The key point mentioned in the comment is you need System.Reflection to extract the DisplayAttribute.

Implement an extension method to extract the value from DisplayAttribute.

public static class ReflectionExtensions
{
    public static string ToName(this PropertyInfo propertyInfo)
    {
        try
        {
            object[] attributes = propertyInfo.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DisplayAttribute), false);
                
            if (attributes != null && attributes.Any())
                return ((DisplayAttribute)attributes[0]).Name;

            return propertyInfo.Name;
        }
        catch
        {
            return propertyInfo.Name;
        }
    }
}

I wrote a similar implementation in GitHub.

With the below way to iterate all properties in class and get the value of DisplayAttribute.

Caller

PropertyInfo[] props = typeof(Model).GetProperties(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.GetProperty);

foreach (PropertyInfo prop in props)
{
    string displayName = prop.ToName();
}

Another approach to work with System.Linq.Expression.

public static class ReflectionExtensions
{
    public static string ToNameByExpression<T, P>(Expression<Func<T, P>> propertyExpression) where T : new ()
    {
        MemberExpression expression = propertyExpression.Body as MemberExpression;
        if (expression == null)
            return null;
                        
        return (expression.Member as PropertyInfo)
            .ToName();
    }
}

Provide the expression to specify the property that you want.

Caller

string displayName = ReflectionExtensions.ToNameByExpression((Model m) => m.FromDate);

Demo @ .NET Fiddle

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 19 '22 at 04:21

You get display name attribute by this way:

public class TestModel
{
    [DisplayName("From Date")]
    public string FromDate { get; set; }
}

//generic method to get name
 private string GetDisplayName<T>(string propertyName)
    {
        MemberInfo property = typeof(T).GetProperty(propertyName);

        var attribute = property.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DisplayNameAttribute), true)
            .Cast<DisplayNameAttribute>().FirstOrDefault();

        return attribute?.DisplayName ?? propertyName;
    }

//get display name
var displayName = GetDisplayName<TestModel>(nameof(TestModel.FromDate));

Using DisplayAttribute of column in a Controller

2 Answers2