How can I find the method that called the current method

Question

When logging in C   how can I learn the name of the method that called the current method  I know all about System Reflection MethodBase GetCurrentMethod    but I want to go one step beneath this in the stack trace  I ve considered parsing the stack trace  but I am hoping to find a cleaner more explicit way  something like Assembly GetCallingAssembly   but for methods

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Maybe you are looking for something like this   StackFrame frame   new StackFrame 1   frame GetMethod   Name    Gets the current method name  MethodBase method   frame GetMethod    method DeclaringType Name   Gets the current class name

User · Answer

We can improve on Mr Assad s code  the current accepted answer  just a little bit by instantiating only the frame we actually need rather than the entire stack   new StackFrame 1  GetMethod   Name    This might perform a little better  though in all likelihood it still has to use the full stack to create that single frame   Also  it still has the same caveats that Alex Lyman pointed out  optimizer native code might corrupt the results   Finally  you might want to check to be sure that new StackFrame 1  or  GetFrame 1  don t return null  as unlikely as that possibility might seem   See this related question  Can you use reflection to find the name of the currently executing method

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For getting Method Name and Class Name try this       public static void Call                 StackTrace stackTrace   new StackTrace             var methodName   stackTrace GetFrame 1  GetMethod            var className   methodName DeclaringType Name ToString             Console WriteLine methodName Name             className

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In C  5 you can get that information using caller info     using System Runtime CompilerServices  public void SendError string Message   CallerMemberName  string callerName               Console WriteLine callerName    called me           You can also get the  CallerFilePath  and  CallerLineNumber

User · Answer

In general  you can use the System Diagnostics StackTrace class to get a System Diagnostics StackFrame  and then use the GetMethod   method to get a System Reflection MethodBase object  However  there are some caveats to this approach    It represents the runtime stack -- optimizations could inline a method  and you will not see that method in the stack trace  It will not show any native frames  so if there s even a chance your method is being called by a native method  this will not work  and there is in-fact no currently available way to do it     NOTE  I am just expanding on the answer provided by Firas Assad

User · Answer

Maybe you are looking for something like this   StackFrame frame   new StackFrame 1   frame GetMethod   Name    Gets the current method name  MethodBase method   frame GetMethod    method DeclaringType Name   Gets the current class name

User · Answer

Note that doing so will be unreliable in release code  due to optimization  Additionally  running the application in sandbox mode  network share  won t allow you to grab the stack frame at all   Consider aspect-oriented programming  AOP   like PostSharp  which instead of being called from your code  modifies your code  and thus knows where it is at all times

User · Answer

Maybe you are looking for something like this   StackFrame frame   new StackFrame 1   frame GetMethod   Name    Gets the current method name  MethodBase method   frame GetMethod    method DeclaringType Name   Gets the current class name

User · Answer

Try this   using System Diagnostics     Get call stack StackTrace stackTrace   new StackTrace        Get calling method name Console WriteLine stackTrace GetFrame 1  GetMethod   Name     one-liner    new System Diagnostics StackTrace    GetFrame 1  GetMethod   Name   It is from Get Calling Method using Reflection  C

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As of  NET 4 5 you can use Caller Information Attributes    CallerFilePath - The source file that called the function  CallerLineNumber - Line of code that called the function   CallerMemberName - Member that called the function   public void WriteLine       CallerFilePath  string callerFilePath             CallerLineNumber  long callerLineNumber   0       CallerMemberName  string callerMember            Debug WriteLine           Caller File Path   0   Caller Line Number   1   Caller Member   2             callerFilePath          callerLineNumber          callerMember         nbsp   This facility is also present in   NET Core  and   NET Standard    References   Microsoft - Caller Information  C   Microsoft - CallerFilePathAttribute Class Microsoft - CallerLineNumberAttribute Class Microsoft - CallerMemberNameAttribute Class

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In C  5 you can get that information using caller info     using System Runtime CompilerServices  public void SendError string Message   CallerMemberName  string callerName               Console WriteLine callerName    called me           You can also get the  CallerFilePath  and  CallerLineNumber

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Extra information to Firas Assaad answer   I have used new StackFrame 1  GetMethod   Name  in  net core 2 1 with dependency injection and I am getting calling method as  Start     I tried with  System Runtime CompilerServices CallerMemberName  string callerName      and it gives me correct calling method

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We can also use lambda s in order to find the caller   Suppose you have a method defined by you   public void MethodA                               Method code here                     and you want to find it s caller   1    Change the method signature so we have a parameter of type Action  Func will also work    public void MethodA Action helperAction                                          Method code here                             2  Lambda names are not generated randomly  The rule seems to be     lt CallerMethodName gt   X where CallerMethodName is replaced by the previous function and X is an index   private MethodInfo GetCallingMethodInfo string funcName                return GetType   GetMethod                funcName Substring 1                                  funcName IndexOf   amp gt    1  StringComparison Ordinal  - 1                           3  When we call MethodA the Action Func parameter has to be generated by the caller method  Example   MethodA      gt         4  Inside MethodA we can now call the helper function defined above and find the MethodInfo of the caller method   Example   MethodInfo callingMethodInfo   GetCallingMethodInfo serverCall Method Name

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We can improve on Mr Assad s code  the current accepted answer  just a little bit by instantiating only the frame we actually need rather than the entire stack   new StackFrame 1  GetMethod   Name    This might perform a little better  though in all likelihood it still has to use the full stack to create that single frame   Also  it still has the same caveats that Alex Lyman pointed out  optimizer native code might corrupt the results   Finally  you might want to check to be sure that new StackFrame 1  or  GetFrame 1  don t return null  as unlikely as that possibility might seem   See this related question  Can you use reflection to find the name of the currently executing method

User · Answer

Try this   using System Diagnostics     Get call stack StackTrace stackTrace   new StackTrace        Get calling method name Console WriteLine stackTrace GetFrame 1  GetMethod   Name     one-liner    new System Diagnostics StackTrace    GetFrame 1  GetMethod   Name   It is from Get Calling Method using Reflection  C

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Note that doing so will be unreliable in release code  due to optimization  Additionally  running the application in sandbox mode  network share  won t allow you to grab the stack frame at all   Consider aspect-oriented programming  AOP   like PostSharp  which instead of being called from your code  modifies your code  and thus knows where it is at all times

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You can use Caller Information and optional parameters   public static string WhoseThere  CallerMemberName  string memberName                return memberName      This test illustrates this    Test  public void Should get name of calling method         var methodName   CachingHelpers WhoseThere        Assert That methodName  Is EqualTo  Should get name of calling method         While the StackTrace works quite fast above and would not be a performance issue in most cases the Caller Information is much faster still   In a sample of 1000 iterations  I clocked it as 40 times faster

User · Answer

Try this   using System Diagnostics     Get call stack StackTrace stackTrace   new StackTrace        Get calling method name Console WriteLine stackTrace GetFrame 1  GetMethod   Name     one-liner    new System Diagnostics StackTrace    GetFrame 1  GetMethod   Name   It is from Get Calling Method using Reflection  C

User · Answer

Maybe you are looking for something like this   StackFrame frame   new StackFrame 1   frame GetMethod   Name    Gets the current method name  MethodBase method   frame GetMethod    method DeclaringType Name   Gets the current class name

User · Answer

Another approach I have used is to add a parameter to the method in question  For example  instead of void Foo    use void Foo string context   Then pass in some unique string that indicates the calling context   If you only need the caller context for development  you can remove the param before shipping

User · Answer

For getting Method Name and Class Name try this       public static void Call                 StackTrace stackTrace   new StackTrace             var methodName   stackTrace GetFrame 1  GetMethod            var className   methodName DeclaringType Name ToString             Console WriteLine methodName Name             className

User · Answer

We can improve on Mr Assad s code  the current accepted answer  just a little bit by instantiating only the frame we actually need rather than the entire stack   new StackFrame 1  GetMethod   Name    This might perform a little better  though in all likelihood it still has to use the full stack to create that single frame   Also  it still has the same caveats that Alex Lyman pointed out  optimizer native code might corrupt the results   Finally  you might want to check to be sure that new StackFrame 1  or  GetFrame 1  don t return null  as unlikely as that possibility might seem   See this related question  Can you use reflection to find the name of the currently executing method

User · Answer

private static MethodBase GetCallingMethod       return new StackFrame 2  false  GetMethod       private static Type GetCallingType       return new StackFrame 2  false  GetMethod   DeclaringType      A fantastic class is here  http   www csharp411 com c-get-calling-method

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Obviously this is a late answer  but I have a better option if you can use  NET 4 5 or newer  internal static void WriteInformation lt T gt  string text   CallerMemberName string method    quot  quot         Console WriteLine DateTime Now ToString      quot    gt   quot    typeof T  FullName    quot   quot    method    quot    quot    text      This will print the current Date and Time  followed by  quot Namespace ClassName MethodName quot  and ending with  quot   text quot   Sample output  6 17 2016 12 41 49 PM   gt  WpfApplication MainWindow  ctor  MainWindow initialized  Sample use  Logger WriteInformation lt MainWindow gt   quot MainWindow initialized quot

User · Answer

Take a look at Logging method name in  NET  Beware of using it in production code  StackFrame may not be reliable

User · Answer

Try this   using System Diagnostics     Get call stack StackTrace stackTrace   new StackTrace        Get calling method name Console WriteLine stackTrace GetFrame 1  GetMethod   Name     one-liner    new System Diagnostics StackTrace    GetFrame 1  GetMethod   Name   It is from Get Calling Method using Reflection  C

User · Answer

Note that doing so will be unreliable in release code  due to optimization  Additionally  running the application in sandbox mode  network share  won t allow you to grab the stack frame at all   Consider aspect-oriented programming  AOP   like PostSharp  which instead of being called from your code  modifies your code  and thus knows where it is at all times

User · Answer

We can also use lambda s in order to find the caller   Suppose you have a method defined by you   public void MethodA                               Method code here                     and you want to find it s caller   1    Change the method signature so we have a parameter of type Action  Func will also work    public void MethodA Action helperAction                                          Method code here                             2  Lambda names are not generated randomly  The rule seems to be     lt CallerMethodName gt   X where CallerMethodName is replaced by the previous function and X is an index   private MethodInfo GetCallingMethodInfo string funcName                return GetType   GetMethod                funcName Substring 1                                  funcName IndexOf   amp gt    1  StringComparison Ordinal  - 1                           3  When we call MethodA the Action Func parameter has to be generated by the caller method  Example   MethodA      gt         4  Inside MethodA we can now call the helper function defined above and find the MethodInfo of the caller method   Example   MethodInfo callingMethodInfo   GetCallingMethodInfo serverCall Method Name

User · Answer

In general  you can use the System Diagnostics StackTrace class to get a System Diagnostics StackFrame  and then use the GetMethod   method to get a System Reflection MethodBase object  However  there are some caveats to this approach    It represents the runtime stack -- optimizations could inline a method  and you will not see that method in the stack trace  It will not show any native frames  so if there s even a chance your method is being called by a native method  this will not work  and there is in-fact no currently available way to do it     NOTE  I am just expanding on the answer provided by Firas Assad

User · Answer

You can use Caller Information and optional parameters   public static string WhoseThere  CallerMemberName  string memberName                return memberName      This test illustrates this    Test  public void Should get name of calling method         var methodName   CachingHelpers WhoseThere        Assert That methodName  Is EqualTo  Should get name of calling method         While the StackTrace works quite fast above and would not be a performance issue in most cases the Caller Information is much faster still   In a sample of 1000 iterations  I clocked it as 40 times faster

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A quick recap of the 2 approaches with speed comparison being the important part   http   geekswithblogs net BlackRabbitCoder archive 2013 07 25 c net-little-wonders-getting-caller-information aspx  Determining the caller at compile-time  static void Log object message    CallerMemberName  string memberName        CallerFilePath  string fileName        CallerLineNumber  int lineNumber   0           we ll just use a simple Console write for now         Console WriteLine   0   1    2  -  3    fileName  lineNumber  memberName  message       Determining the caller using the stack  static void Log object message           frame 1  true for source info     StackFrame frame   new StackFrame 1  true       var method   frame GetMethod        var fileName   frame GetFileName        var lineNumber   frame GetFileLineNumber            we ll just use a simple Console write for now         Console WriteLine   0   1    2  -  3    fileName  lineNumber  method Name  message       Comparison of the 2 approaches  Time for 1 000 000 iterations with Attributes  196 ms Time for 1 000 000 iterations with StackTrace  5096 ms      So you see  using the attributes is much  much faster   Nearly 25x   faster in fact

User · Answer

lt summary gt      Returns the call that occurred just before the  GetCallingMethod        lt  summary gt  public static string GetCallingMethod        return GetCallingMethod  GetCallingMethod            lt summary gt      Returns the call that occurred just before the the method specified       lt  summary gt       lt param name  MethodAfter  gt The named method to see what happened just before it was called   case sensitive  lt  param gt       lt returns gt The method name  lt  returns gt  public static string GetCallingMethod string MethodAfter       string str          try            StackTrace st   new StackTrace          StackFrame   frames   st GetFrames          for  int i   0  i  lt  st FrameCount - 1  i                     if  frames i  GetMethod   Name Equals MethodAfter                          if   frames i   1  GetMethod   Name Equals MethodAfter      ignores overloaded methods                               str   frames i   1  GetMethod   ReflectedType FullName         frames i   1  GetMethod   Name                 break                                           catch  Exception           return str

User · Answer

In general  you can use the System Diagnostics StackTrace class to get a System Diagnostics StackFrame  and then use the GetMethod   method to get a System Reflection MethodBase object  However  there are some caveats to this approach    It represents the runtime stack -- optimizations could inline a method  and you will not see that method in the stack trace  It will not show any native frames  so if there s even a chance your method is being called by a native method  this will not work  and there is in-fact no currently available way to do it     NOTE  I am just expanding on the answer provided by Firas Assad

User · Answer

As of  NET 4 5 you can use Caller Information Attributes    CallerFilePath - The source file that called the function  CallerLineNumber - Line of code that called the function   CallerMemberName - Member that called the function   public void WriteLine       CallerFilePath  string callerFilePath             CallerLineNumber  long callerLineNumber   0       CallerMemberName  string callerMember            Debug WriteLine           Caller File Path   0   Caller Line Number   1   Caller Member   2             callerFilePath          callerLineNumber          callerMember         nbsp   This facility is also present in   NET Core  and   NET Standard    References   Microsoft - Caller Information  C   Microsoft - CallerFilePathAttribute Class Microsoft - CallerLineNumberAttribute Class Microsoft - CallerMemberNameAttribute Class

User · Answer

Extra information to Firas Assaad answer   I have used new StackFrame 1  GetMethod   Name  in  net core 2 1 with dependency injection and I am getting calling method as  Start     I tried with  System Runtime CompilerServices CallerMemberName  string callerName      and it gives me correct calling method

User · Answer

Take a look at Logging method name in  NET  Beware of using it in production code  StackFrame may not be reliable

User · Answer

var callingMethod   new StackFrame 1  true  GetMethod    string source   callingMethod ReflectedType FullName          callingMethod Name

User · Answer

Take a look at Logging method name in  NET  Beware of using it in production code  StackFrame may not be reliable

User · Answer

Another approach I have used is to add a parameter to the method in question  For example  instead of void Foo    use void Foo string context   Then pass in some unique string that indicates the calling context   If you only need the caller context for development  you can remove the param before shipping

User · Answer

Obviously this is a late answer  but I have a better option if you can use  NET 4 5 or newer  internal static void WriteInformation lt T gt  string text   CallerMemberName string method    quot  quot         Console WriteLine DateTime Now ToString      quot    gt   quot    typeof T  FullName    quot   quot    method    quot    quot    text      This will print the current Date and Time  followed by  quot Namespace ClassName MethodName quot  and ending with  quot   text quot   Sample output  6 17 2016 12 41 49 PM   gt  WpfApplication MainWindow  ctor  MainWindow initialized  Sample use  Logger WriteInformation lt MainWindow gt   quot MainWindow initialized quot

User · Answer

In general  you can use the System Diagnostics StackTrace class to get a System Diagnostics StackFrame  and then use the GetMethod   method to get a System Reflection MethodBase object  However  there are some caveats to this approach    It represents the runtime stack -- optimizations could inline a method  and you will not see that method in the stack trace  It will not show any native frames  so if there s even a chance your method is being called by a native method  this will not work  and there is in-fact no currently available way to do it     NOTE  I am just expanding on the answer provided by Firas Assad

User · Answer

A quick recap of the 2 approaches with speed comparison being the important part   http   geekswithblogs net BlackRabbitCoder archive 2013 07 25 c net-little-wonders-getting-caller-information aspx  Determining the caller at compile-time  static void Log object message    CallerMemberName  string memberName        CallerFilePath  string fileName        CallerLineNumber  int lineNumber   0           we ll just use a simple Console write for now         Console WriteLine   0   1    2  -  3    fileName  lineNumber  memberName  message       Determining the caller using the stack  static void Log object message           frame 1  true for source info     StackFrame frame   new StackFrame 1  true       var method   frame GetMethod        var fileName   frame GetFileName        var lineNumber   frame GetFileLineNumber            we ll just use a simple Console write for now         Console WriteLine   0   1    2  -  3    fileName  lineNumber  method Name  message       Comparison of the 2 approaches  Time for 1 000 000 iterations with Attributes  196 ms Time for 1 000 000 iterations with StackTrace  5096 ms      So you see  using the attributes is much  much faster   Nearly 25x   faster in fact

User · Answer

private static MethodBase GetCallingMethod       return new StackFrame 2  false  GetMethod       private static Type GetCallingType       return new StackFrame 2  false  GetMethod   DeclaringType      A fantastic class is here  http   www csharp411 com c-get-calling-method

User · Answer

StackFrame caller    new System Diagnostics StackTrace    GetFrame 1   string methodName   caller GetMethod   Name    will be enough  I think

User · Answer

Note that doing so will be unreliable in release code  due to optimization  Additionally  running the application in sandbox mode  network share  won t allow you to grab the stack frame at all   Consider aspect-oriented programming  AOP   like PostSharp  which instead of being called from your code  modifies your code  and thus knows where it is at all times

User · Answer

Take a look at Logging method name in  NET  Beware of using it in production code  StackFrame may not be reliable

User · Answer

Another approach I have used is to add a parameter to the method in question  For example  instead of void Foo    use void Foo string context   Then pass in some unique string that indicates the calling context   If you only need the caller context for development  you can remove the param before shipping

User · Answer

lt summary gt      Returns the call that occurred just before the  GetCallingMethod        lt  summary gt  public static string GetCallingMethod        return GetCallingMethod  GetCallingMethod            lt summary gt      Returns the call that occurred just before the the method specified       lt  summary gt       lt param name  MethodAfter  gt The named method to see what happened just before it was called   case sensitive  lt  param gt       lt returns gt The method name  lt  returns gt  public static string GetCallingMethod string MethodAfter       string str          try            StackTrace st   new StackTrace          StackFrame   frames   st GetFrames          for  int i   0  i  lt  st FrameCount - 1  i                     if  frames i  GetMethod   Name Equals MethodAfter                          if   frames i   1  GetMethod   Name Equals MethodAfter      ignores overloaded methods                               str   frames i   1  GetMethod   ReflectedType FullName         frames i   1  GetMethod   Name                 break                                           catch  Exception           return str

User · Answer

We can improve on Mr Assad s code  the current accepted answer  just a little bit by instantiating only the frame we actually need rather than the entire stack   new StackFrame 1  GetMethod   Name    This might perform a little better  though in all likelihood it still has to use the full stack to create that single frame   Also  it still has the same caveats that Alex Lyman pointed out  optimizer native code might corrupt the results   Finally  you might want to check to be sure that new StackFrame 1  or  GetFrame 1  don t return null  as unlikely as that possibility might seem   See this related question  Can you use reflection to find the name of the currently executing method

User · Answer

Another approach I have used is to add a parameter to the method in question  For example  instead of void Foo    use void Foo string context   Then pass in some unique string that indicates the calling context   If you only need the caller context for development  you can remove the param before shipping

User · Answer

StackFrame caller    new System Diagnostics StackTrace    GetFrame 1   string methodName   caller GetMethod   Name    will be enough  I think

User · Answer

var callingMethod   new StackFrame 1  true  GetMethod    string source   callingMethod ReflectedType FullName          callingMethod Name

[c#] How can I find the method that called the current method?

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