When generating code using the CodeDomProvider you may noticed that by default you do not get the same warning messages in the CompilerResults that you receive when compiling in Visual Studio. For example, lets take the simple code below that has a static method with two unused variables.
public class Test
{
static void testMethod()
{
int a;
int b = 1;
}
}
The code above when compiled in Visual Studio will result in two warning messages appearing in the Error List window.
On the CodeDOM side we can confirm with a simple unit test that the default value for CompilerParameters.WarningLevel does not cause the two warnings to be returned when the same code is compiled with the CodeDomProvider.
[Test]
public void DefaultWarningLevel()
{
StringBuilder snippet = new StringBuilder();
snippet.AppendLine("public class Test");
snippet.AppendLine("{");
snippet.AppendLine(" static void testMethod()");
snippet.AppendLine(" {");
snippet.AppendLine(" int a;");
snippet.AppendLine(" int b = 1;");
snippet.AppendLine(" }");
snippet.AppendLine("}");
CodeDomProvider provider = CodeDomProvider.CreateProvider("C#");
CompilerParameters parameters = new CompilerParameters {GenerateInMemory = true};
CompilerResults results = provider.CompileAssemblyFromSource(parameters, snippet.ToString());
Assert.That(results.Errors.Cast<CompilerError>().Any(r => r.IsWarning), Is.False);
}
If you check the Build tab in the Properties window for a new project in Visual Studio you can see that the default warning level is 4.
The MSDN documentation tells us that the valid warning levels are 0 through 4.
- 0 - Turns off emission of all warning messages.
- 1 - Displays severe warning messages.
- 2 - Displays level 1 warnings plus certain, less-severe warnings, such as warnings about hiding class members.
- 3 - Displays level 2 warnings plus certain, less-severe warnings, such as warnings about expressions that always evaluate to true or false.
- 4 - Displays all level 3 warnings plus informational warnings. This is the default warning level at the command line.
Another simple unit test shows that setting CompilerParameters.WarningLevel to 4 will result in the same warnings as Visual Studio being returned.
[Test]
public void WarningLevelFour()
{
StringBuilder snippet = new StringBuilder();
snippet.AppendLine("public class Test");
snippet.AppendLine("{");
snippet.AppendLine(" static void testMethod()");
snippet.AppendLine(" {");
snippet.AppendLine(" int a;");
snippet.AppendLine(" int b = 1;");
snippet.AppendLine(" }");
snippet.AppendLine("}");
CodeDomProvider provider = CodeDomProvider.CreateProvider("C#");
CompilerParameters parameters = new CompilerParameters
{
GenerateInMemory = true,
WarningLevel = 4
};
CompilerResults results = provider.CompileAssemblyFromSource(parameters, snippet.ToString());
Assert.That(results.Errors.Cast<CompilerError>().Count(r => r.IsWarning), Is.EqualTo(2));
Assert.That(results.Errors[0].ErrorText, Is.StringContaining("The variable 'a' is declared but never used"));
Assert.That(results.Errors[1].ErrorText, Is.StringContaining("The variable 'b' is assigned but its value is never used"));
}
We now have the same warnings that Visual Studio provides, even though the documentation for CompilerParameters.WarningLevel appears to be a little misleading.
Gets or sets the warning level at which the compiler aborts compilation.
The compilation will not be aborted for a warning unless the /warnaserror option is provided to the compiler. When compiling with the CodeDOM you use CompilerParameters.TreatWarningsAsErrors to abort the compilation for warnings. Needless to say Visual Studio has the same option available on the Buildtab in the project Propertieswindow.