Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD) Certification Practice Test

Which attribute is used to define a custom condition in method calls?

1. Conditional

2. AttributeUsage

3. Serializable

4. Browsable

The correct answer is: Conditional

The correct answer is that the Conditional attribute is used to define a custom condition in method calls. This attribute allows you to specify that certain methods should only be called when a specific compilation symbol is defined, effectively conditionally compiling code based on whether that symbol is set. For instance, if you create a method marked with the Conditional attribute and specify a symbol, that method will only execute when the symbol is defined during compilation. If the symbol is not defined, the method call will be omitted entirely, thus optimizing the code by removing unnecessary calls that are not needed in certain build configurations. This can be particularly beneficial for logging or debugging operations that you might want to exclude from production builds, allowing you to maintain a clean and efficient codebase. The other attributes mentioned serve different purposes: AttributeUsage defines how an attribute can be used, Serializable marks classes to indicate that their instances can be serialized, and Browsable controls how certain properties are displayed in a property grid. None of these attributes are specifically designed to create conditions for method calls, making the Conditional attribute the right choice for this question.