Supported Property Attributes

AttributeProviderAttribute

Specifies another Type from which additional attributes should be queried. This is called attribute redirection.

See MSDN (external) for more information on this attribute.

BrowsableAttribute

Indicates whether a property should be displayed. This attribute is compared to the PropertyGrid.BrowsableAttributes, which defaults to a [Browsable(true)] entry.

This code shows an example of applying BrowsableAttribute to hide the Bar property:

public class Foo {
	[Browsable(false)]
	public int Bar { get; set; }
}

See MSDN (external) for more information on this attribute.

CategoryAttribute

Specifies the name of the category in which to group the property.

When PropertyGrid.IsCategorized is set to false this attribute is ignored, as the properties are not categorized. Properties that do not have an explicitly defined category name will be placed in a miscellaneous category, whose display name can be customized by changing the PropertyGrid.MiscCategoryName property.

This code shows an example of applying CategoryAttribute to set the property's category:

public class Foo {
	[Category("Common")]
	public int Bar { get; set; }
}

See MSDN (external) for more information on this attribute.

DefaultValueAttribute

Specifies the default value for a property.

The default value can be used to determine if a property has been modified, or when resetting a property. The value specified by this attribute takes precedence over the Reset*/ShouldSerialize* methods, if any.

This code shows an example of applying DefaultValueAttribute to set the property's default value:

public class Foo {
	[DefaultValue(5)]
	public int Bar { get; set; }
}

See MSDN (external) for more information on this attribute.

DescriptionAttribute

Specifies a description for a property.

The description is displayed in the summary area of a property grid.

This code shows an example of applying DescriptionAttribute to set the property's description:

public class Foo {
	[Description("A description about Bar.")]
	public int Bar { get; set; }
}

See MSDN (external) for more information on this attribute.

DisplayNameAttribute

Specifies the display name for a property.

The display name is typically a user friendly version of the property name (e.g., "Display Name" versus "DisplayName"). This string is displayed in the name column and summary area of a property grid. If not specified, then the property name is used.

This code shows an example of applying DisplayNameAttribute to set the property's display name:

public class Foo {
	[DisplayName("Bar Property")]
	public int Bar { get; set; }
}

See MSDN (external) for more information on this attribute.

EditorAttribute

Specifies the editor to use to change a property.

In the context of property grid, this attribute can be used to specify the property editor used for selecting a name cell or value editor cell DataTemplate. This property editor would override any other default property editor that normally would have been used.

This code shows an example of applying EditorAttribute to set the property's editor to use a DatePropertyEditor instead of a default DateTimePropertyEditor when Editors interop is being used:

public class Foo {
	[Editor(typeof(DatePropertyEditor), typeof(PropertyEditor))]
	public DateTime Bar { get; set; }
}

See the Property Editors for more information on how to use this attribute.

See MSDN (external) for more information on this attribute.

ImmutableObjectAttribute

Specifies that an object is immutable and has no child properties capable of being edited. Child properties of immutable objects cannot be modified.

See MSDN (external) for more information on this attribute.

MergablePropertyAttribute

Indicates whether a property can be combined with other properties, when multiple selected objects are being modified at once.

See the Multiple Objects topic for more information on property merging.

See MSDN (external) for more information on this attribute.

NotifyParentPropertyAttribute

Indicates whether the parent property is notified when the value of the property that this attribute is applied to is modified.

See MSDN (external) for more information on this attribute.

ParenthesizePropertyNameAttribute

Indicates whether the name of a property is displayed within parentheses (e.g., "(Name)" versus "Name").

This attribute is typically used to sort more important properties to the top, when sorting alphabetically. However, other sorting features can alter sort order. In addition, the parentheses make the property stand out slightly.

See MSDN (external) for more information on this attribute.

ReadOnlyAttribute

Indicates whether a property is read-only or read/write.

Properties that do not have a set accessor are automatically considered read-only. If a set accessor is available, then this attribute can be used to force the property to be displayed as read-only.

This code shows an example of applying ReadOnlyAttribute to force the property to be read-only when in a property grid:

public class Foo {
	[ReadOnly(true)]
	public DateTime Bar { get; set; }
}

See MSDN (external) for more information on this attribute.

TypeConverterAttribute

Specifies a TypeConverter class that should be used to convert values for a property.

TypeConverter-derived classes offer a lot of functionality in allowing various types of input. For example, the EnumConverter class allows a property, whose type is an enum, to be set to the string representation of one of the enum values. Without EnumConverter, only actual enum values could be assigned to the property.

A custom TypeConverter can be used to validate or coerce input as needed.

See MSDN (external) for more information on this attribute.

TypeDescriptionProviderAttribute

Specifies the custom TypeDescriptionProvider for a class.

This is currently only supported by the TypeDescriptorFactory.

See MSDN (external) for more information on this attribute.

DisplayAttribute

Provides a general-purpose attribute that lets you specify sort order and localizable strings for category, display name, description.

This attribute can be used in place of CategoryAttribute, DisplayNameAttribute, and DescriptionAttribute. It is nicer since only one attribute needs to be used for all these data annoatations and the values returned are localizable with string resources.

This code shows an example of applying DisplayAttribute to set sort order (via Order), category (via GroupName), display name (via ShortName), and description (via Description) for a property:

public class Foo {
	[Display(Order = 4, GroupName = "Common", ShortName = "Bar Property", Description = "A description about Bar.")]
	public int Bar { get; set; }
}

See MSDN (external) for more information on this attribute.

EditableAttribute

Indicates whether a property is editable.

This attribute is similar to ReadOnlyAttribute but in opposite terms.

When not specified, the property is editable by default if there is a set accessor available. However, if this attribute is supplied with its AllowEdit property set to false, the property will be displayed as read-only.

This code shows an example of applying EditableAttribute to force the property to be read-only when in a property grid:

public class Foo {
	[Editable(false)]
	public int Bar { get; set; }
}

See MSDN (external) for more information on this attribute.