Loading a InMemory compiled assembly into current domain

Question

I'm using CSharpCodeProvider to compile an assembly and I have the CompileParameters GenerateInMemory property set to true because I don't want to create a physical file.

After the compile I can take the CompilerResults and do something like this:-

 object x = cr.CompiledAssembly.CreateInstance("MyGeneratedClass");
 Console.WriteLine(x);

I get the expected output, the CreateInstance has worked.

However I need to be able to access types in the current AppDomain without such knowledge of the assembly. I need to do something like this:-

 Type t = Type.GetType("MyGeneratedClass");
 object x = Activator.CreateInstance(t);

The problem is in this code t ends up being null. Now I suspect that although the assembly is compiled it isn't loaded. I can't seem to find away to load this assembly into the domain so that its type names can be resolved.

Can anyone enlighten me?

Answer 1

I'm afraid that is explicitly impossible.

The documentation for Type.GetType clearly states:

If the assembly has not been saved to disk when GetType is called, the method returns null. GetType does not understand transient dynamic assemblies; therefore, calling GetType to retrieve a type in a transient dynamic assembly returns null.

You will have to write the assembly to disk if you want it to behave just like any regular assembly.