C# Conditional Methods

In C# you can apply attributes to methods. An attribute is simply a square bracket with some text in the middle on the line before a method. Here is a simple example inside of a test class:

[TestMethod]
public void SaysHelloWorld()

This attribute is used by the testing framework so it knows what methods to run.

Something else you can use with attributes are called conditional methods which can be used to have blocks of code that only get run in debug mode. Using a conditional method keeps you from having messy if/else logic always checking if you are in debug mode or not.

Here is an example:

[System.Diagnostics.Conditional("DEBUG")]
static void ShowDebugInfo(string message)
{
    Console.WriteLine(message);
}

This means that when we call this method and we aren’t in debug mode it won’t be executed:

public static void Main(string[] args)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Hello, world!");
    ShowDebugInfo("my message");
}

Inside of Visual Studio to switch between “Debug” and “Release” mode there is a drop down on the toolbar just to the right of the Start Debugging button where you can choose which mode you want to run in.