Question

I was wondering if it is possible to save C# code fragments to a text file (or any input stream), and then execute those dynamically? Assuming what is provided to me would compile fine within any Main() block, is it possible to compile and/or execute this code? I would prefer to compile it for performance reasons.

At the very least, I could define an interface that they would be required to implement, then they would provide a code ‘section’ that implemented that interface.

Answer 1

The best solution in C#/all static .NET languages is to use the CodeDOM for such things. (As a note, its other main purpose is for dynamically constructing bits of code, or even whole classes.)

Here’s a nice short example take from LukeH’s blog, which uses some LINQ too just for fun.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using Microsoft.CSharp;
using System.CodeDom.Compiler;

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var csc = new CSharpCodeProvider(new Dictionary<string, string>() { { "CompilerVersion", "v3.5" } });
        var parameters = new CompilerParameters(new[] { "mscorlib.dll", "System.Core.dll" }, "foo.exe", true);
        parameters.GenerateExecutable = true;
        CompilerResults results = csc.CompileAssemblyFromSource(parameters,
        @"using System.Linq;
            class Program {
              public static void Main(string[] args) {
                var q = from i in Enumerable.Range(1,100)
                          where i % 2 == 0
                          select i;
              }
            }");
        results.Errors.Cast<CompilerError>().ToList().ForEach(error => Console.WriteLine(error.ErrorText));
    }
}

The class of primary importance here is the CSharpCodeProvider which utilises the compiler to compile code on the fly. If you want to then run the code, you just need to use a bit of reflection to dynamically load the assembly and execute it.

Here is another example in C# that (although slightly less concise) additionally shows you precisely how to run the runtime-compiled code using the System.Reflection namespace.