Get string name of property using reflection

If you already have a PropertyInfo, then @dtb's answer is the right one. If, however, you're wanting to find out which property's code you're currently in, you'll have to traverse the current call stack to find out which method you're currently executing and derive the property name from there.

var stackTrace = new StackTrace();
var frames = stackTrace.GetFrames();
var thisFrame = frames[0];
var method = thisFrame.GetMethod();
var methodName = method.Name; // Should be get_* or set_*
var propertyName = method.Name.Substring(4);

Edit:

After your clarification, I'm wondering if what you're wanting to do is get the name of a property from a property expression. If so, you might want to write a method like this:

public static string GetPropertyName<T>(Expression<Func<T>> propertyExpression)
{
    return (propertyExpression.Body as MemberExpression).Member.Name;
}

To use it, you'd write something like this:

var propertyName = GetPropertyName(
    () => myObject.AProperty); // returns "AProperty"

• +1 for the use of Expression; I didn't understand the question this way. - Ondrej Tucny
• +1 for the Expression. I was just getting Dead Crazy with that ! Many many thanks, dude... (BTW, if you could explain to me the c# syntax a bit, 'cause this sounds pretty advanced stuff, I must admit I did not really get it all, though it works like a charm) - Mehdi LAMRANI
• The syntax is a bit bizarre. The syntax for expressions is just like the syntax for lambda expressions; whether it's one or the other depends on the type of the parameter in the method being called. If () => myObject.AProperty was a lambda expression where AProperty was of type int, its type basically translates to "a method with no parameters () which returns => an int (implicitly determined through static typing), which is equivalent to Func<int>. Since GetPropertyName takes an Expression, the parameter's type translates to Expression<Func<int>> instead. - Jacob
• Thank you for your good solution. My question is that: can I implement this like : myObject.AProperty.GetPropertyName() with extension methods ? - masoud ramezani

With C# 6.0 (Visual Studio 2015), you can now use the nameof operator, like this:

var obj = new MyObject();
string propertyName = nameof(obj.Property);
string methodName = nameof(obj.Method);
string directPropertyName = nameof(MyObject.Property);
string directMethodName = nameof(MyObject.Method);

• This is a really great method. - Gandalf458
• OP, if you're still out there you might want to reselect your accepted answer? - William T. Mallard

PropertyInfo.Name

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)

• Thank you TKTS, your answer is great , and this is the C# code of this syntax public static string GetPropertyName<t>(Expression<Func<t>> PropertyExp) { return (PropertyExp.Body as MemberExpression).Member.Name; } string name = GetPropertyName(() => (new Tasks()).Title); - Ahmad Hindash

acutully the right answer which is written by TKTS, and here I just want to convert his syntax to C#

public static string GetPropertyName<t>(Expression<Func<t>> PropertyExp)
{
return (PropertyExp.Body as MemberExpression).Member.Name;
}

and the usage of this code goes like the example as below:

string name = GetPropertyName(() => (new Tasks()).Title);

in addition : there is an exception could be happen that when the comes with all properties has null values, so anybody has to take this on his concentration when hes implementing his code

Thanks TKTS ..

myClassInstance.GetType().GetProperties() gives you PropertyInfo instances for all public properties for myClassInstance's type. (See MSDN for documentation and other overloads.) ´PropertyInfo.Name´ is the actual name of the property. In case you already know the name of the property use GetProperty(name) to retrieve its PropertyInfo object (see MSDN again).

I used the version provided by Jacob but sometimes it gave an exception. It was because the cast was invalid. This version solved the issue:

    public static string GetPropertyName<T>(this Expression<Func<T>> propertyExpression)
    {
        ConstantExpression cExpr = propertyExpression.Body as ConstantExpression;
        MemberExpression mExpr = propertyExpression.Body as MemberExpression;

        if (cExpr != null)
            return cExpr.Value.ToString();
        else if (mExpr != null)
            return mExpr.Member.Name;

        else return null;
    }