Why are the names of generic types mangled in a .NET stack trace?

Question

I have an exception being thrown from a C# method, that takes a generic list as a paremeter.

private static void DoWork(List<ClassName> a)
{
}

When it throws an exception, the stack trace shows an `1 instead of the class name for the list. Why is this? This is what the stack trace has.

... 
at DoWork(List`1 a).
...

Answer 1

The reason why is that the stack trace is generated by the CLR and not C#. Hence it uses CLR type names vs. C# type names.

The type names given to generic types in metadata (in both C# and VB.Net) have the form TypeName`Number where

• TypeName: Name of the type in the abscence of generic parameters
• Number: Count of generic parameters on the type

This is also why it's legal to have several generic classes which the same name but differing numbers of generic parameters. At a CLR level they have different type names.

Answer 2

Look for the "`" to show you a reference back to the type called in your code. It takes some practice but it is possible.

-Shaun