Skip to Content

Parsing a .NET Solution File

I asked on Twitter yesterday if anyone had any recommendations for parsing a .NET solution file. I got a few responses, and after a little additional research, I discovered that Microsoft ships a library that can do it. In Microsoft.Build NuGet package is the Microsoft.Build.Construct namespace that has the SolutionFile.Parse(string) method, which does precisely that. It is reasonably simple to use, and I have included a basic example.

using System;
using Microsoft.Build.Construct;

namespace HelloWorld {
    class Program {
        static void Main(string[] args) {
            var solution = SolutionFile.Parse("path to solution file");
            foreach(var project in solution.ProjectsInOrder) {
                Console.WriteLine($"{project.ProjectName} is of type: {project.ProjectType}");
            }
        }
    }
}

I learned something new to just solve a problem that I will post about soon.

Thanks for reading,

Jamies

If you enjoy the content then consider buying me a coffee.