Get user-friendly name of simple types through reflection?

Question

Type t = typeof(bool);
string typeName = t.Name;

In this simple example, typeName would have the value "Boolean". I'd like to know if/how I can get it to say "bool" instead.

Same for int/Int32, double/Double, string/String.

Answer 1

using CodeDom;
using Microsoft.CSharp;

// ...

Type t = typeof(bool);

string typeName;
using (var provider = new CSharpCodeProvider())
{
    var typeRef = new CodeTypeReference(t);
    typeName = provider.GetTypeOutput(typeRef);
}

Console.WriteLine(typeName);    // bool

Answer 2

The "friendly names" as you call them are language-specific and not tied to the framework. Therefore, it doesn't make sense to have this information in the framework, and the MS design guidelines require you to use the framework names for method names etc. (such as ToInt32 etc.).

Answer 3

From what I understand, bool, string, int, etc. are just aliases for us C# developers.

After the compiler processes a file, no more of them are acutally present.