How to identify the calling method of a method

[Rakehs]

Hi,

I have a method Show() which is invoked by several
methods at different intervals. I want to identify the
calling method within Show() whenever it is invoked. How
do i do this?

Thanks in advance
Rakesh

 

[Vijaye Raji]

Lookup StackTrace and StackFrame classes in System.Diagnostics namespace.

vJ

 

[Miha Markic]

Hi Rakesh,

Actually, you can't for sure.
The only way would be inspecting the stack as Vijaye noted.
However, it takes a lot of time and it isn't reliable because of code
optimizations.

 

[Rakesh]

THanks! Thanks a lot!

-----Original Message-----
Lookup StackTrace and StackFrame classes in System.Diagnostics namespace.

vJ




.

 

[Rakesh]

But when I use the StackFrame.GetMethod().Name property,
this returns the method i am in and not the calling
method...

 

[Vijaye Raji]

As Miha pointed out, there may be code optimizations that would give you
different results. Some functions could be completely optimized out and may
never appear in a call stack. But the following code should work fine on a
Debug build (with no optimizations)

This is how you get the full stack trace. (Note: The following code is
taken from MSDN - have not tried it myself.)

// Create a StackTrace that captures
// filename, line number and column
// information, for the current thread.
StackTrace st = new StackTrace(true);
for(int i =0; i< st.FrameCount; i++ )
{
// High up the call stack, there is only one stack frame
StackFrame sf = st.GetFrame(i);
Console.WriteLine("\nHigh Up the Call Stack, Method: {0}",
sf.GetMethod() );
}

 

[Alvin Bruney]

Isnt there another way to get the caller via reflection? If not, should
there be?

 

[Miha Markic]

Hi Alvin,

No, AFAIK there isn't other way than inspecting the stack.
Maybe there is a better approach to your problem (or Rakesh's).

 

[Ron McNulty]

Hi Rakehs

Can you tell us why you need to do this? It goes against the normal OO
principle that a class method should never know about its caller -
especially if the caller is a descendent.

Like any rule, there are exceptions. Maybe if you could expand on your
requirements the NG could come up with a more elegant solution.

Regards

Ron