Class Any (3.27.1) 

public sealed class Any : IMessage<Any>, IEquatable<Any>, IDeepCloneable<Any>, IBufferMessage, IMessage

Any contains an arbitrary serialized protocol buffer message along with a URL that describes the type of the serialized message.

Protobuf library provides support to pack/unpack Any values in the form of utility functions or additional generated methods of the Any type.

Example 1: Pack and unpack a message in C++.

Foo foo = ...;
Any any;
any.PackFrom(foo);
...
if (any.UnpackTo(&foo)) {
  ...
}

Example 2: Pack and unpack a message in Java.

Foo foo = ...;
Any any = Any.pack(foo);
...
if (any.is(Foo.class)) {
  foo = any.unpack(Foo.class);
}
// or ...
if (any.isSameTypeAs(Foo.getDefaultInstance())) {
  foo = any.unpack(Foo.getDefaultInstance());
}

Example 3: Pack and unpack a message in Python.

foo = Foo(...)
any = Any()
any.Pack(foo)
...
if any.Is(Foo.DESCRIPTOR):
  any.Unpack(foo)
  ...

Example 4: Pack and unpack a message in Go

 foo := &pb.Foo{...}
 any, err := anypb.New(foo)
 if err != nil {
   ...
 }
 ...
 foo := &pb.Foo{}
 if err := any.UnmarshalTo(foo); err != nil {
   ...
 }

The pack methods provided by protobuf library will by default use 'type.googleapis.com/full.type.name' as the type URL and the unpack methods only use the fully qualified type name after the last '/' in the type URL, for example "foo.bar.com/x/y.z" will yield type name "y.z".

JSON

The JSON representation of an Any value uses the regular representation of the deserialized, embedded message, with an additional field @type which contains the type URL. Example:

package google.profile;
message Person {
  string first_name = 1;
  string last_name = 2;
}

{
  "@type": "type.googleapis.com/google.profile.Person",
  "firstName": <string>,
  "lastName": <string>
}

If the embedded message type is well-known and has a custom JSON representation, that representation will be embedded adding a field value which holds the custom JSON in addition to the @type field. Example (for message [google.protobuf.Duration][]):

{
  "@type": "type.googleapis.com/google.protobuf.Duration",
  "value": "1.212s"
}

Inheritance

object > Any

Namespace

Google.Protobuf.WellKnownTypes

Assembly

Google.Protobuf.dll

Constructors

Any()

public Any()

Any(Any)

public Any(Any other)
Parameter
Name Description
other Any

Fields

TypeUrlFieldNumber

public const int TypeUrlFieldNumber = 1

Field number for the "type_url" field.

Field Value
Type Description
int

ValueFieldNumber

public const int ValueFieldNumber = 2

Field number for the "value" field.

Field Value
Type Description
int

Properties

Descriptor

public static MessageDescriptor Descriptor { get; }
Property Value
Type Description
MessageDescriptor

Parser

public static MessageParser<Any> Parser { get; }
Property Value
Type Description
MessageParserAny

TypeUrl

public string TypeUrl { get; set; }

A URL/resource name that uniquely identifies the type of the serialized protocol buffer message. This string must contain at least one "/" character. The last segment of the URL's path must represent the fully qualified name of the type (as in path/google.protobuf.Duration). The name should be in a canonical form (e.g., leading "." is not accepted).

In practice, teams usually precompile into the binary all types that they expect it to use in the context of Any. However, for URLs which use the scheme http, https, or no scheme, one can optionally set up a type server that maps type URLs to message definitions as follows:

  • If no scheme is provided, https is assumed.
  • An HTTP GET on the URL must yield a [google.protobuf.Type][] value in binary format, or produce an error.
  • Applications are allowed to cache lookup results based on the URL, or have them precompiled into a binary to avoid any lookup. Therefore, binary compatibility needs to be preserved on changes to types. (Use versioned type names to manage breaking changes.)

Note: this functionality is not currently available in the official protobuf release, and it is not used for type URLs beginning with type.googleapis.com. As of May 2023, there are no widely used type server implementations and no plans to implement one.

Schemes other than http, https (or the empty scheme) might be used with implementation specific semantics.

Property Value
Type Description
string

Value

public ByteString Value { get; set; }

Must be a valid serialized protocol buffer of the above specified type.

Property Value
Type Description
ByteString

Methods

CalculateSize()

public int CalculateSize()

Calculates the size of this message in Protocol Buffer wire format, in bytes.

Returns
Type Description
int

The number of bytes required to write this message to a coded output stream.

Clone()

public Any Clone()

Creates a deep clone of this object.

Returns
Type Description
Any

A deep clone of this object.

Equals(Any)

public bool Equals(Any other)
Parameter
Name Description
other Any
Returns
Type Description
bool

Equals(object)

public override bool Equals(object other)
Parameter
Name Description
other object
Returns
Type Description
bool
Overrides

GetHashCode()

public override int GetHashCode()
Returns
Type Description
int
Overrides

GetTypeName(string)

public static string GetTypeName(string typeUrl)

Retrieves the type name for a type URL, matching the FullName of the packed message type.

Parameter
Name Description
typeUrl string

The URL to extract the type name from
Returns
Type Description
string

The type name
Remarks

This is always just the last part of the URL, after the final slash. No validation of anything before the trailing slash is performed. If the type URL does not include a slash, an empty string is returned rather than an exception being thrown; this won't match any types, and the calling code is probably in a better position to give a meaningful error.

There is no handling of fragments or queries at the moment.

Is(MessageDescriptor)

public bool Is(MessageDescriptor descriptor)

Returns a bool indictating whether this Any message is of the target message type

Parameter
Name Description
descriptor MessageDescriptor

The descriptor of the message type
Returns
Type Description
bool

true if the type name matches the descriptor's full name or false otherwise

MergeFrom(CodedInputStream)

public void MergeFrom(CodedInputStream input)

Merges the data from the specified coded input stream with the current message.

Parameter
Name Description
input CodedInputStream
Remarks

See the user guide for precise merge semantics.

MergeFrom(Any)

public void MergeFrom(Any other)

Merges the given message into this one.

Parameter
Name Description
other Any
Remarks

See the user guide for precise merge semantics.

Pack(IMessage)

public static Any Pack(IMessage message)

Packs the specified message into an Any message using a type URL prefix of "type.googleapis.com".

Parameter
Name Description
message IMessage

The message to pack.
Returns
Type Description
Any

An Any message with the content and type URL of message.

Pack(IMessage, string)

public static Any Pack(IMessage message, string typeUrlPrefix)

Packs the specified message into an Any message using the specified type URL prefix.

Parameters
Name Description
message IMessage

The message to pack.
typeUrlPrefix string

The prefix for the type URL.
Returns
Type Description
Any

An Any message with the content and type URL of message.

ToString()

public override string ToString()
Returns
Type Description
string
Overrides

TryUnpack<T>(out T)

public bool TryUnpack<T>(out T result) where T : IMessage, new()

Attempts to unpack the content of this Any message into the target message type, if it matches the type URL within this Any message.

Parameter
Name Description
result T
Returns
Type Description
bool

true if the message was successfully unpacked; false if the type name didn't match
Type Parameter
Name Description
T

The type of message to attempt to unpack the content into.

Unpack(TypeRegistry)

public IMessage Unpack(TypeRegistry registry)

Attempts to unpack the content of this Any message into one of the message types in the given type registry, based on the type URL.

Parameter
Name Description
registry TypeRegistry

The type registry to consult for messages.
Returns
Type Description
IMessage

The unpacked message, or null if no matching message was found.

Unpack<T>()

public T Unpack<T>() where T : IMessage, new()

Unpacks the content of this Any message into the target message type, which must match the type URL within this Any message.

Returns
Type Description
T

The unpacked message.
Type Parameter
Name Description
T

The type of message to unpack the content into.
Exceptions
Type Description
InvalidProtocolBufferException

The target message type doesn't match the type URL in this message

WriteTo(CodedOutputStream)

public void WriteTo(CodedOutputStream output)

Writes the data to the given coded output stream.

Parameter
Name Description
output CodedOutputStream

Coded output stream to write the data to. Must not be null.

Extension Methods