In using the common language runtime and class libraries, you probably will need to use attributes at some point. The following list includes a few of the common uses of attributes in code:

• Marking methods using the WebMethod attribute in XML Web services to indicate that the method should be callable over the SOAP protocol. For more information, see WebMethodAttribute.

• Describing how to marshal method parameters when interoperating with native code. For more information, see MarshalAsAttribute.

• Describing the COM properties for classes, methods, and interfaces.

• Marking components as COM so the Visual Basic compiler will generate the additional code required to create a COM component. For more information, see ComClassAttribute.

• Calling unmanaged code using the DllImportAttribute class.

• Describing your assembly in terms of title, version, description, or trademark.

• Describing which members of a class to serialize for persistence.

• Describing how to map between class members and XML nodes for XML serialization.

• Describing the security requirements for methods.

• Specifying characteristics used to enforce security.

• Controlling optimizations by the just-in-time (JIT) compiler so the code remains easy to debug.

You can use attributes in many additional ways, and you can also create custom attributes.

See Also