Use MSBuild macro like $(ProjectDir) in C# code

Question

Can I use MSBuild variables so that they are resolved in my code? I am thinking of a piece of code that requires the $(ProjectDir), because it will never be moved (it is a unit test project).

An example:

public class MyTestDataPath
{
    public void GetTestData()
    {
        return SOME_COMPILE_TIME_PROJECT_DIR_MACRO + "\\test-data"; // Should resolve via $(ProjectDir) during compile time.
    }
}

anscheinbar · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-19 12:43:00Z

1

Yes, there is. But not directly in your code. You could define a prebuild action in your project properties:

echo $(ProjectDir) > "$(ProjectDir)\Resources\ProjDir.txt"

Then you can add the file projdir.txt as a resource in your project properties and reference the content in your code with:

var dir = Resources.ProjDir

But I would simply copy the test data in your postbuild action into the output directory and use reflection to get it at runtime (binaries and test data are now portable to other developers).

edited Oct 19, 2015 at 12:43

answered Oct 16, 2015 at 11:22

anscheinbar

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6 Comments

Marnix Over a year ago

Putting it in the resources is a nice idea. Didn't think of that one before.

anscheinbar Over a year ago

I hope that answer is good enough for you and it worked. I just thought about another workaround: you could write var dir = "__PROJDIR__" and in the prebuild step you could search & replace __PROJDIR__ with $(ProjectDir).

Marnix Over a year ago

But it would always come to a pre-build step. That's something I would like to avoid.

stijn Over a year ago

Why would you like to avoid the prebuild step?

Marnix Over a year ago

Because I have over 100 csproj files that will need the same code. There still isn't something like a pre-build step solution wide. Except for a .bat file of course. But then I would still have to add the bat file to all 100 projects.

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