Hi,

(First of all, this is a very lengthy post, but don't worry: I've already implemented all of it, I'm just asking your opinion.)

I'm having trouble implementing the following; I'd appreciate some help:

1. I get a Type as parameter.
2. I define a subclass using reflection. Notice that I don't intend to modify the original type, but create a new one.

3. I create a property per field of the original class, like so:

   public class OriginalClass {
       private int x;
   }
   
   
   public class Subclass : OriginalClass {
       private int x;
   
   
   public int X {
       get { return x; }
       set { x = value; }
   }
   
   
   }
   

4. For every method of the superclass, I create an analogous method in the subclass. The method's body must be the same except that I replace the instructions ldfld x with callvirt this.get_X, that is, instead of reading from the field directly I call the get accessor.

I'm having trouble with step 4. I know you're not supposed to manipulate code like this, but I really need to.

Here's what I've tried:

Attempt #1: Use Mono.Cecil. This would allow me to parse the body of the method into human-readable Instructions, and easily replace instructions. However, the original type isn't in a .dll file, so I can't find a way to load it with Mono.Cecil. Writing the type to a .dll, then load it, then modify it and write the new type to disk (which I think is the way you create a type with Mono.Cecil), and then load it seems like a huge overhead.

Attempt #2: Use Mono.Reflection. This would also allow me to parse the body into Instructions, but then I have no support for replacing instructions. I've implemented a very ugly and inefficient solution using Mono.Reflection, but it doesn't yet support methods that contain try-catch statements (although I guess I can implement this) and I'm concerned that there may be other scenarios in which it won't work, since I'm using the ILGenerator in a somewhat unusual way. Also, it's very ugly ;). Here's what I've done:

private void TransformMethod(MethodInfo methodInfo) {

    // Create a method with the same signature.
    ParameterInfo[] paramList = methodInfo.GetParameters();
    Type[] args = new Type[paramList.Length];
    for (int i = 0; i < args.Length; i++) {
        args[i] = paramList[i].ParameterType;
    }
    MethodBuilder methodBuilder = typeBuilder.DefineMethod(
        methodInfo.Name, methodInfo.Attributes, methodInfo.ReturnType, args);
    ILGenerator ilGen = methodBuilder.GetILGenerator();

    // Declare the same local variables as in the original method.
    IList<LocalVariableInfo> locals = methodInfo.GetMethodBody().LocalVariables;
    foreach (LocalVariableInfo local in locals) {
        ilGen.DeclareLocal(local.LocalType);
    }

    // Get readable instructions.
    IList<Instruction> instructions = methodInfo.GetInstructions();

    // I first need to define labels for every instruction in case I
    // later find a jump to that instruction. Once the instruction has
    // been emitted I cannot label it, so I'll need to do it in advance.
    // Since I'm doing a first pass on the method's body anyway, I could
    // instead just create labels where they are truly needed, but for
    // now I'm using this quick fix.
    Dictionary<int, Label> labels = new Dictionary<int, Label>();
    foreach (Instruction instr in instructions) {
        labels[instr.Offset] = ilGen.DefineLabel();
    }

    foreach (Instruction instr in instructions) {

        // Mark this instruction with a label, in case there's a branch
        // instruction that jumps here.
        ilGen.MarkLabel(labels[instr.Offset]);

        // If this is the instruction that I want to replace (ldfld x)...
        if (instr.OpCode == OpCodes.Ldfld) {
            // ...get the get accessor for the accessed field (get_X())
            // (I have the accessors in a dictionary; this isn't relevant),
            MethodInfo safeReadAccessor = dataMembersSafeAccessors[((FieldInfo) instr.Operand).Name][0];
            // ...instead of emitting the original instruction (ldfld x),
            // emit a call to the get accessor,
            ilGen.Emit(OpCodes.Callvirt, safeReadAccessor);

        // Else (it's any other instruction), reemit the instruction, unaltered.
        } else {
            Reemit(instr, ilGen, labels);
        }

    }

}

And here comes the horrible, horrible Reemit method:

private void Reemit(Instruction instr, ILGenerator ilGen, Dictionary<int, Label> labels) {

    // If the instruction doesn't have an operand, emit the opcode and return.
    if (instr.Operand == null) {
        ilGen.Emit(instr.OpCode);
        return;
    }

    // Else (it has an operand)...

    // If it's a branch instruction, retrieve the corresponding label (to
    // which we want to jump), emit the instruction and return.
    if (instr.OpCode.FlowControl == FlowControl.Branch) {
        ilGen.Emit(instr.OpCode, labels[Int32.Parse(instr.Operand.ToString())]);
        return;
    }

    // Otherwise, simply emit the instruction. I need to use the right
    // Emit call, so I need to cast the operand to its type.
    Type operandType = instr.Operand.GetType();
    if (typeof(byte).IsAssignableFrom(operandType))
        ilGen.Emit(instr.OpCode, (byte) instr.Operand);
    else if (typeof(double).IsAssignableFrom(operandType))
        ilGen.Emit(instr.OpCode, (double) instr.Operand);
    else if (typeof(float).IsAssignableFrom(operandType))
        ilGen.Emit(instr.OpCode, (float) instr.Operand);
    else if (typeof(int).IsAssignableFrom(operandType))
        ilGen.Emit(instr.OpCode, (int) instr.Operand);
    ... // you get the idea. This is a pretty long method, all like this.
}

Branch instructions are a special case because instr.Operand is SByte, but Emit expects an operand of type Label. Hence the need for the Dictionary labels.

As you can see, this is pretty horrible. What's more, it doesn't work in all cases, for instance with methods that contain try-catch statements, since I haven't emitted them using methods BeginExceptionBlock, BeginCatchBlock, etc, of ILGenerator. This is getting complicated. I guess I can do it: MethodBody has a list of ExceptionHandlingClause that should contain the necessary information to do this. But I don't like this solution anyway, so I'll save this as a last-resort solution.

Attempt #3: Go bare-back and just copy the byte array returned by MethodBody.GetILAsByteArray(), since I only want to replace a single instruction for another single instruction of the same size that produces the exact same result: it loads the same type of object on the stack, etc. So there won't be any labels shifting and everything should work exactly the same. I've done this, replacing specific bytes of the array and then calling MethodBuilder.CreateMethodBody(byte[], int), but I still get the same error with exceptions, and I still need to declare the local variables or I'll get an error... even when I simply copy the method's body and don't change anything. So this is more efficient but I still have to take care of the exceptions, etc.

Sigh.

Here's the implementation of attempt #3, in case anyone is interested:

private void TransformMethod(MethodInfo methodInfo, Dictionary<string, MethodInfo[]> dataMembersSafeAccessors, ModuleBuilder moduleBuilder) {

    ParameterInfo[] paramList = methodInfo.GetParameters();
    Type[] args = new Type[paramList.Length];
    for (int i = 0; i < args.Length; i++) {
        args[i] = paramList[i].ParameterType;
    }
    MethodBuilder methodBuilder = typeBuilder.DefineMethod(
        methodInfo.Name, methodInfo.Attributes, methodInfo.ReturnType, args);

    ILGenerator ilGen = methodBuilder.GetILGenerator();

    IList<LocalVariableInfo> locals = methodInfo.GetMethodBody().LocalVariables;
    foreach (LocalVariableInfo local in locals) {
        ilGen.DeclareLocal(local.LocalType);
    }

    byte[] rawInstructions = methodInfo.GetMethodBody().GetILAsByteArray();
    IList<Instruction> instructions = methodInfo.GetInstructions();

    int k = 0;
    foreach (Instruction instr in instructions) {

        if (instr.OpCode == OpCodes.Ldfld) {

            MethodInfo safeReadAccessor = dataMembersSafeAccessors[((FieldInfo) instr.Operand).Name][0];

            // Copy the opcode: Callvirt.
            byte[] bytes = toByteArray(OpCodes.Callvirt.Value);
            for (int m = 0; m < OpCodes.Callvirt.Size; m++) {
                rawInstructions[k++] = bytes[put.Length - 1 - m];
            }

            // Copy the operand: the accessor's metadata token.
            bytes = toByteArray(moduleBuilder.GetMethodToken(safeReadAccessor).Token);
            for (int m = instr.Size - OpCodes.Ldfld.Size - 1; m >= 0; m--) {
                rawInstructions[k++] = bytes[m];
            }

        // Skip this instruction (do not replace it).
        } else {
            k += instr.Size;
        }

    }

    methodBuilder.CreateMethodBody(rawInstructions, rawInstructions.Length);

}


private static byte[] toByteArray(int intValue) {
    byte[] intBytes = BitConverter.GetBytes(intValue);
    if (BitConverter.IsLittleEndian)
        Array.Reverse(intBytes);
    return intBytes;
}



private static byte[] toByteArray(short shortValue) {
    byte[] intBytes = BitConverter.GetBytes(shortValue);
    if (BitConverter.IsLittleEndian)
        Array.Reverse(intBytes);
    return intBytes;
}

(I know it isn't pretty. Sorry. I put it quickly together to see if it would work.)

I don't have much hope, but can anyone suggest anything better than this?

Sorry about the extremely lengthy post, and thanks.