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Compiling Code with AssemblyGenerator


Note! The Lamar team thinks most users will use the "Frames" model to generate and compile code, but you might very well wish to bypass that admittedly complicated model and just use the inner utility classes that are shown in this page.

If all you want to do is take some C# code and compile that in memory to a new, in memory assembly, you can use the LamarCompiler.AssemblyGenerator class in the LamarCompiler library.

Let's say that you have a simple interface in your system like this:


public interface IOperation
{
    int Calculate(int one, int two);
}

Next, let's use AssemblyGenerator to compile code with a custom implementation of IOperation that we've generated in code:


            var generator = new AssemblyGenerator();

            // This is necessary for the compilation to succeed
            // It's exactly the equivalent of adding references
            // to your project
            generator.ReferenceAssembly(typeof(Console).Assembly);
            generator.ReferenceAssembly(typeof(IOperation).Assembly);

            // Compile and generate a new .Net Assembly object
            // in memory
            var assembly = generator.Generate(@"
using LamarCompiler.Testing.Samples;

namespace Generated
{
    public class AddOperator : IOperation
    {
        public int Calculate(int one, int two)
        {
            return one + two;
        }
    }
}
");

            // Find the new type we generated up above
            var type = assembly.GetExportedTypes().Single();
            
            // Use Activator.CreateInstance() to build an object
            // instance of our new class, and cast it to the 
            // IOperation interface
            var operation = (IOperation)Activator.CreateInstance(type);

            // Use our new type
            var result = operation.Calculate(1, 2);
            

There's only a couple things going on in the code above:

  1. I added an assembly reference for the .Net assembly that holds the IOperation interface
  2. I passed a string to the GenerateCode() method, which successfully compiles my code and hands me back a .Net Assembly object
  3. Load the newly generated type from the new Assembly
  4. Use the new IOperation

If you're not perfectly keen on doing brute force string manipulation to generate your code, you can also use Lamar's built in ISourceWriter to generate some of the code for you with all its code generation utilities:


var generator = new AssemblyGenerator();

// This is necessary for the compilation to succeed
// It's exactly the equivalent of adding references
// to your project
generator.ReferenceAssembly(typeof(Console).Assembly);
generator.ReferenceAssembly(typeof(IOperation).Assembly);


var assembly = generator.Generate(x =>
{
    x.Namespace("Generated");
    x.StartClass("AddOperator", typeof(IOperation));
    
    x.Write("BLOCK:public int Calculate(int one, int two)");
    x.Write("return one + two;");
    x.FinishBlock();  // Finish the method
    
    x.FinishBlock();  // Finish the class
    x.FinishBlock();  // Finish the namespace
});



var type = assembly.GetExportedTypes().Single();
var operation = (IOperation)Activator.CreateInstance(type);

var result = operation.Calculate(1, 2);