Getting all types in a namespace via reflection

Question

How to get all the classes in a namespace through reflection in C#

Answer 1

using System.Reflection;
using System.Collections.Generic;
//...

static List<string> GetClasses(string nameSpace)
{
    Assembly asm = asm.GetExecutingAssembly();

    List<string> namespacelist = new List<string>();
    List<string> classlist = new List<string>();

    foreach (Type type in asm.GetTypes())
    {
        if (type.Namespace == nameSpace)
            namespacelist.Add(type.Name);
    }

    foreach (string classname in namespacelist)
        classlist.Add(classname);

    return classlist;
}

Answer 2

You won't be able to get all types in a namespace, because a namespace can bridge multiple assemblies, but you can get all classes in an assembly and check to see if they belong to that namespace.

Assembly.GetTypes() works on the local assembly, or you can load an assembly first then call GetTypes() on it.

Answer 3

Explained here: http://www.dreamincode.net/code/snippet1539.htm

Iterate over all classes in the assembly, and pick the ones with the correct value for their Namespace attribute.

Answer 4

Following code prints names of classes in specified ns defined in current assembly.
As other guys pointed, namespace can be scattered between different modules, so you need to get a list of assemblies first.

string @namespace = "...";

var q = from t in Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetTypes()
        where t.IsClass && t.Namespace == @namespace
        select t;
q.ToList().ForEach(t => Console.WriteLine(t.Name));

Answer 5

Namespaces are actually rather passive in the design of the runtime and serve primarily as organizational tools. The Full Name of a type in .NET consists of the Namespace and Class/Enum/Etc. combined. If you only wish to go through a specific assembly, you would simply loop through the types returned by assembly.GetExportedTypes() checking the value of type.Namespace. If you were trying to go through all assemblies loaded in the current AppDomain it would involve using AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies()

Answer 6

Here's a fix for LoaderException errors you're likely to find if one of the types sublasses a type in another assembly:

// Setup event handler to resolve assemblies
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.ReflectionOnlyAssemblyResolve += new ResolveEventHandler(CurrentDomain_ReflectionOnlyAssemblyResolve);

Assembly a = System.Reflection.Assembly.ReflectionOnlyLoadFrom(filename);
a.GetTypes();
// process types here

// method later in the class:
static Assembly CurrentDomain_ReflectionOnlyAssemblyResolve(object sender, ResolveEventArgs args)
{
    return System.Reflection.Assembly.ReflectionOnlyLoad(args.Name);
}

That should help with loading types defined in other assemblies.

Hope that helps!

Answer 7

//a simple combined code snippet 

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Reflection;

namespace MustHaveAttributes
{
  class Program
  {
    static void Main ( string[] args )
    {
      Console.WriteLine ( " START " );

      // what is in the assembly
      Assembly a = Assembly.Load ( "MustHaveAttributes" );
      Type[] types = a.GetTypes ();
      foreach (Type t in types)
      {

        Console.WriteLine ( "Type is {0}", t );
      }
      Console.WriteLine (
         "{0} types found", types.Length );

      #region Linq
      //#region Action


      //string @namespace = "MustHaveAttributes";

      //var q = from t in Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly ().GetTypes ()
      //        where t.IsClass && t.Namespace == @namespace
      //        select t;
      //q.ToList ().ForEach ( t => Console.WriteLine ( t.Name ) );


      //#endregion Action  
      #endregion

      Console.ReadLine ();
      Console.WriteLine ( " HIT A KEY TO EXIT " );
      Console.WriteLine ( " END " );
    }
  } //eof Program


  class ClassOne
  {

  } //eof class 

  class ClassTwo
  {

  } //eof class


  [System.AttributeUsage ( System.AttributeTargets.Class |
    System.AttributeTargets.Struct, AllowMultiple = true )]
  public class AttributeClass : System.Attribute
  {

    public string MustHaveDescription { get; set; }
    public string MusHaveVersion { get; set; }


    public AttributeClass ( string mustHaveDescription, string mustHaveVersion )
    {
      MustHaveDescription = mustHaveDescription;
      MusHaveVersion = mustHaveVersion;
    }

  } //eof class 

} //eof namespace