Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly Method

Definition

Gets the assembly that contains the code that is currently executing.

public static System.Reflection.Assembly GetExecutingAssembly ();

Returns

The assembly that contains the code that is currently executing.

Examples

The following example uses the Type.Assembly property to get the currently executing assembly based on a type contained in that assembly. It also calls the GetExecutingAssembly method to show that it returns an Assembly object that represents the same assembly.

using System;
using System.Reflection;

class Example
{
   static void Main()
   {
      // Get the assembly from a known type in that assembly.
      Type t = typeof(Example);
      Assembly assemFromType = t.Assembly;
      Console.WriteLine("Assembly that contains Example:");
      Console.WriteLine("   {0}\n", assemFromType.FullName);

      // Get the currently executing assembly.
      Assembly currentAssem = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
      Console.WriteLine("Currently executing assembly:");
      Console.WriteLine("   {0}\n", currentAssem.FullName);

      Console.WriteLine("The two Assembly objects are equal: {0}",
                        assemFromType.Equals(currentAssem));
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//    Assembly that contains Example:
//       GetExecutingAssembly1, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null
//
//    Currently executing assembly:
//       GetExecutingAssembly1, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null
//
//    The two Assembly objects are equal: True

Remarks

For performance reasons, you should call this method only when you do not know at design time what assembly is currently executing. The recommended way to retrieve an Assembly object that represents the current assembly is to use the Type.Assembly property of a type found in the assembly, as the following example illustrates.

using System;
using System.Reflection;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      Assembly assem = typeof(Example).Assembly;
      Console.WriteLine("Assembly name: {0}", assem.FullName);
   }
}
// The example displays output like the following:
//    Assembly name: Assembly1, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null

To get the assembly that contains the method that called the currently executing code, use GetCallingAssembly.

Applies to

Product Versions
.NET Core 2.0, Core 2.1, Core 2.2, Core 3.0, Core 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
.NET Framework 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
.NET Standard 2.0, 2.1