In the C# programming language, attributes are metadata attached to a field or a block of code, equivalent to annotations in Java. Attributes are accessible to both the compiler and programmatically through reflection.
Users of the language see many examples where attributes are used to address cross-cutting concerns and other mechanistic or platform uses. This creates the false impression that this is their sole intended purpose.
Their specific use as meta-data is left to the developer and can cover a wide range of types of information about any given application, classes and members that is not instance specific. The decision to expose any given attribute as a property is also left to the developer as is the decision to use them as part of a larger application framework.
Attributes should be contrasted against XML Documentation which also defines meta-data but is not included in the compiled assembly and therefore cannot be accessed programmatically.
