custom attribute for string property

Question

i have a question. I would like to do something like that:

[PutStars]
public string telephone

where PutStars could be a custom attribute for example.

PutStars acts on the string, so it replace telephone value [333-123456789] and when getting value, it retrieves for example [333-12xxxx789].

Is it possible?

Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

Well, you can implement a helper method and call it when getting the value:

private string _tel;
public string Tel 
{
  set{ _tel = value; }
  get {
    return _tel.PutStars();
  }
}

public static string PutStars(this string str)
{
 return str.Replace("1", "*");
}

Alternatively when you get the string you can do:

var starred = myObj.Tel.PutStars();

Answer 2

The closest you'll get to that inbuilt will probably be [PasswordPropertyText], but a: that is intended to mask an entire field, and b: it depends entirely on the UI framework you are using looking for this attribute; nothing is automatic in attributes. Your best bet, frankly, is probably to add a second property that you use for UI binding:

public string Telephone {get;set;}

public string TelephoneMasked {
    get { /* your code here */ }
}

and bind to TelephoneMasked.