Question

I have a class inside a DLL (Database.dll) which has a static property:

public class Database
{
    public static int[] ReleasedDatabaseVersions
    {
        get { return new int[] { 5, 6, 7, 8 }; }
    }
}

I have created a standalone executable (ValidateInstall.exe) which needs to access ReleasedDatabaseVersions in the Database class.

However, I want ValidateInstall.exe to be entirely independent of Database.dll (i.e. I want to be able to run it on a PC without this DLL installed).

In C++ inlining would make this very easy. Is this possible in C#?

I don’t want to repeat this data in my executable as this would be a maintenance headache.

Answer 1

You could use ILMerge post-build to embed the assembly holding the Database class into your exe:

ILMerge is a utility that can be used to merge multiple .NET
assemblies into a single assembly.

The ILMerge page also links to an article by Jeffrey Richter, detailing how to achieve something similar without using ILMerge.