AssemblyName.Version Property

Definition

Gets or sets the major, minor, build, and revision numbers of the assembly.

C#
public Version Version { get; set; }
C#
public Version? Version { get; set; }

Property Value

An object that represents the major, minor, build, and revision numbers of the assembly.

Examples

This section contains two examples. The first example shows how to retrieve the version of the currently executing assembly. The second example shows how to use the Version property to specify the assembly version when you emit a dynamic assembly.

Example 1

The following example retrieves and displays the version numbers of the currently executing assembly and the assembly that contains the String class.

C#
using System;
using System.Reflection;

[assembly:AssemblyVersion("1.1.0.0")]

class Example
{
    static void Main()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("The version of the currently executing assembly is: {0}",
            typeof(Example).Assembly.GetName().Version);

        Console.WriteLine("The version of mscorlib.dll is: {0}",
            typeof(String).Assembly.GetName().Version);
    }
}

/* This example produces output similar to the following:

The version of the currently executing assembly is: 1.1.0.0
The version of mscorlib.dll is: 2.0.0.0
 */

Example 2

The following example emits a dynamic assembly and saves it to the current directory. When the assembly is created, the Version property is used to specify version information for the assembly.

C#
using System;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Threading;
using System.Reflection.Emit;

public class AssemblyName_Constructor
{
   public static void MakeAssembly(AssemblyName myAssemblyName, string fileName)
   {
      // Get the assembly builder from the application domain associated with the current thread.
      AssemblyBuilder myAssemblyBuilder = Thread.GetDomain().DefineDynamicAssembly(myAssemblyName, AssemblyBuilderAccess.RunAndSave);
      // Create a dynamic module in the assembly.
      ModuleBuilder myModuleBuilder = myAssemblyBuilder.DefineDynamicModule("MyModule", fileName);
      // Create a type in the module.
      TypeBuilder myTypeBuilder = myModuleBuilder.DefineType("MyType");
      // Create a method called 'Main'.
      MethodBuilder myMethodBuilder = myTypeBuilder.DefineMethod("Main", MethodAttributes.Public | MethodAttributes.HideBySig |
         MethodAttributes.Static, typeof(void), null);
      // Get the Intermediate Language generator for the method.
      ILGenerator myILGenerator = myMethodBuilder.GetILGenerator();
      // Use the utility method to generate the IL instructions that print a string to the console.
      myILGenerator.EmitWriteLine("Hello World!");
      // Generate the 'ret' IL instruction.
      myILGenerator.Emit(OpCodes.Ret);
      // End the creation of the type.
      myTypeBuilder.CreateType();
      // Set the method with name 'Main' as the entry point in the assembly.
      myAssemblyBuilder.SetEntryPoint(myMethodBuilder);
      myAssemblyBuilder.Save(fileName);
   }

   public static void Main()
   {
      // Create a dynamic assembly with name 'MyAssembly' and build version '1.0.0.2001'.
      AssemblyName myAssemblyName = new AssemblyName();
      myAssemblyName.Name = "MyAssembly";
      myAssemblyName.Version = new Version("1.0.0.2001");
      MakeAssembly(myAssemblyName, "MyAssembly.exe");

      // Get all the assemblies currently loaded in the application domain.
      Assembly[] myAssemblies = Thread.GetDomain().GetAssemblies();

      // Get the dynamic assembly named 'MyAssembly'.
      Assembly myAssembly = null;
      for(int i = 0; i < myAssemblies.Length; i++)
      {
         if(String.Compare(myAssemblies[i].GetName().Name, "MyAssembly") == 0)
            myAssembly = myAssemblies[i];
      }
      if(myAssembly != null)
      {
         Console.WriteLine("\nDisplaying the assembly name\n");
         Console.WriteLine(myAssembly);
      }
   }
}

Remarks

All components of the version must be integers greater than or equal to zero. Metadata restricts the major, minor, build, and revision components for an assembly to a maximum value of UInt16.MaxValue - 1. If a component exceeds this value, no error is thrown; however, in a dynamic assembly, that component is zero.

Applies to

Product Versions
.NET Core 1.0, Core 1.1, 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 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, 2.1
UWP 10.0