What is Metadata in C#?

Dhimesh Parmar

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I Need Basic Information About Metadata

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Naresh Beniwal3y ago
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8861065/what-is-metadata-in-net
Muhammad Imran Ansari4y ago
Metadata is Self-Describing components which means Metadata is binary information describing your program that is stored either in a CLR - Common Language Runtime portable executable (PE) file or in memory.

A component (.exe or .dll) that was written in one language could not easily use a software component that was written in another language. COM provided a step towards solving this problem. .NET makes component interoperation even easier by allowing compilers to emit additional declarative information into all modules and assemblies. This information, called metadata, helps components to interact seamlessly.
Rijwan Ansari4y ago
C# in metadata is defined as the binary information which is describing our program and this information is stored either in common language runtime portable executable file or in memory. If you compile the code from portable executable file then metadata is inserted in one more area portion of the file and all this code will now be converted into MSIL format (Microsoft Intermediate Language) then code moved into another partition portion of the file. All data types and data members that is defined and referenced in the assembly is put within the metadata. While we are executing the C# code at the runtime, it loads the metadata from the memory.

The main purpose of the C# metadata is to know the information about the class, data members, inheritance, and data types etc. of the class. Metadata in the file consists of table and heap data structures.
Mahesh Chand4y ago
When you create a new program (exe or dll) in .NET and C#, the complied program becomes a PE (portable executable) that you can move it anywhere and execute it as long as .NET is install there. Metadata is binary information that describes the PE. When a program is compiled into PE, the metadata is inserted into a portion of the file and code compiled as MSIL is inserted into another potion of the file. Metadata describes every type and member defined in your code in a language-neutral manner. That means, for .NET CLR, it doesn’t matter if the code is written in C#, VB, or F#. Metadata stored the following information – description of the assembly, types, and attributes.

Each metadata table holds information about the elements of your program. For example, one metadata table describes the classes in your code, another table describes the fields, and so on. If you have ten classes in your code, the class table will have tens rows, one for each class. Metadata tables reference other tables and heaps. For example, the metadata table for classes references the table for methods.

Metadata also stores information in four heap structures: string, blob, user string, and GUID. All the strings used to name types and members are stored in the string heap. For example, a method table does not directly store the name of a particular method, but points to the method's name stored in the string heap.
Here is this detailed article on metadata: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/metadata-and-self-describing-components