Using System.Reflection to get at private fields in a class

6:41 In my unit testing binge I have come across the need (albeit a questionable one) to validate the contents of values internal to a class.

It took me a bit to figure out how to do this, so I figured I'd share it here.

The magic is in FieldInfo.GetValue (thanks to Stefan Goßner for pointing me in the right direction here.)

For instance, I have this:

    public class FlowManager

    {

        private OrderedDictionary<string, IBlock> m_Flows;



        //... etc ...

    }

I would get a reference to m_Flows like this (stripped down, but you get the idea):

    private OrderedDictionary<string, IBlock> GetFlows (

        FlowManager flowManager)

    {

        FieldInfo field = fm.GetType ().GetField (

            "m_Flows",

            BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);





        if (field == null)

            return null;

	

        return field.GetValue (flowManager) 

                    as OrderedDictionary<string, IBlock>;

    }

Updated: playing with formating to make the source look like source