Get string name of property using reflection

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There is a whole wealth of reflection examples out there that allow you to get either:

  1. All properties in a class
  2. A single property, provided you know the string name

Is there a way (using reflection, TypeDescriptor, or otherwise) to get the string name of a property in a class at runtime, provided all I have is an instance of the class and property?

I have an instance of the class with the property (as well as other properties) that I want to get the string name of (not the getter/setter). I need to do some work on that property using Reflection, but don't want to maintain code with hardcoded string names in case I refactor the property name. Thus, I want to programatically get the name of the property.

I know that I can easily get all the properties in a class using reflection and then get the name of each property. What I'm asking for is a function to give me name of a property, provided I pass it the instance of the property. In other words, how do I find the property I want from the PropertyInfo[] array returned to me from the class.GetType().GetProperty(myProperty) so that I can get the PropertyInfo.Name from it?

propertyinfo reflection c#
7 Answers

In case anyone needs it...here is the VB .NET version of the answer:

Public Shared Function GetPropertyName(Of t)(ByVal PropertyExp As Expression(Of Func(Of t))) As String
   Return TryCast(PropertyExp.Body, MemberExpression).Member.Name
End Function

Usage:

Dim name As String = GetPropertyName(Function() (New myObject).AProperty)
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