Using nameof to get name of current method

Question

Have browsed, searched and hoped but cannot find a straight answer.

Is there anyway in C# 6.0 to get the current method name using nameof withouth specifying the method name?

I am adding my test results to a dictionary like this:

Results.Add(nameof(Process_AddingTwoConsents_ThreeExpectedRowsAreWrittenToStream), result);

I would prefer if I would not have to specify the method name explicitly so I can copy+paste the line, a non-working example:

Results.Add(nameof(this.GetExecutingMethod()), result);

If possible I do not want to use Reflection.

UPDATE

This is not (as suggested) a duplicate of this question. I am asking if is explicitly possible to make use of nameof without(!) reflection to get the current method name.

Alberich

And why don´t you use this: #44653? – Lewd

You can use StackTrace to get such info, but this is slow. To achieve something automatic you can use code-generation (e.g. a tool which run before compiler and replaces something with something else) or AOP (see this). – Rattan

Wouldn't this do it? System.Reflection.MethodInfo.GetCurrentMethod().Name – Gusman

He Literally said "without using reflection" – Gem

Answer 1

You can't use nameof to achieve that, but how about this workaround:

The below uses no direct reflection (just like nameof) and no explicit method name.

Results.Add(GetCaller(), result);

public static string GetCaller([CallerMemberName] string caller = null)
{
    return caller;
}

GetCaller returns the name of any method that calls it.

Transfuse

How does this help? You need the caller of the executing method, not the caller of GetCaller; unless you are proposing adding an optional parameter to all potentially callable methods in order to make this work which is, frankly, hideous. – Byroad

@Byroad The OP stated "get the current method name" . This does exactly what he stated ! You only need one GetCaller method that you can call from anywhere to get the current executing method name. – Transfuse

I would recommend using caller = null since this is more obvious imo. Its also the example from MS istelf and R# – Ledeen

Wish this had been around from the beginning... :-( – Imagination

this works greatly. The problem with nameof(method) is beyound simple copy-paste issues. When you use nameof(method) for logging, for example, visual studio counts 1 reference/caller in method for each nameof(method) you use. It becomes hard to identify if a method is not called by any other and can be safelly deleted – Hilltop

Answer 2

Building on user3185569's great answer:

public static string GetMethodName(this object type, [CallerMemberName] string caller = null)
{
    return type.GetType().FullName + "." + caller;
}

Results in you being able to call this.GetMethodName() anywhere to return the fully qualified method name.

Hexaemeron

How I call in static method ? not valid this – Abrahan

@Abrahan Make an overload of GetMethodName() that doesn't include the type parameter, and call it like any other static method. e.g. Util.GetMethodName(); – Raucous

Answer 3

Same as others, but some variation:

    /// <summary>
    /// Returns the caller method name.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="type"></param>
    /// <param name="caller"></param>
    /// <param name="fullName">if true returns the fully qualified name of the type, including its namespace but not its assembly.</param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public static string GetMethodName(this object type, [CallerMemberName] string caller = null, bool fullName = false)
    {
        if (type == null) throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(type));
        var name = fullName ? type.GetType().FullName : type.GetType().Name;
        return $"{name}.{caller}()";
    }

Allows to call it like this:

Log.Debug($"Enter {this.GetMethodName()}...");

Assurance

Answer 4

If you want to add the name of the current method into the Results List then you may use this :

StackTrace sTrace= new StackTrace();
StackFrame sFrame= sTrace.GetFrame(0);
MethodBase currentMethodName = sFrame.GetMethod();
Results.Add(currentMethodName.Name, result);

Or you can use,

Results.Add(new StackTrace().GetFrame(0).GetMethod().Name, result);    

Padishah

Note that is probably not reliable, since the method might be inlined. I would also expect it to be pretty slow. – Eweneck

In general you should never use these classes in production code – Nanoid

System.Reflection.MethodInfo.GetCurrentMethod() will do this more easily (and probably more quickly) – Imagination