C# 0 The Complete Reference

typeof

 statement to obtain a 

Type

object upon which all of the reflection methods either directly or indirectly operated. 

Although this might be useful in a number of circumstances, the full power of reflection 

is found when the types available to a program are determined dynamically by analyzing 

the contents of other assemblies.

As you know from Chapter 16, an assembly carries with it type information about the 

classes, structures, and so on, that it contains. The Reflection API allows you to load an 

assembly, discover information about it, and create instances of any of its publicly available 

types. Using this mechanism, a program can search its environment, utilizing functionality 

that might be available without having to explicitly define that functionality at compile 

time. This is an extremely potent, and exciting, concept. For example, you can imagine a 

program that acts as a “type browser,” displaying the types available on a system. Another 

application could be a design tool that lets you visually “wire together” a program that is 

composed of the various types supported by the system. Since all information about a type 

is discoverable, there is no inherent limitation to the ways reflection can be applied.

To obtain information about an assembly, you will first create an