Question

If I load an assembly, and get a static readonly field of a given type, and I expect that field to be initialized on static constructor, and I call GetValue on that field, will it have a value (since I’m accessing a field on a type, so it needs to be typeinitialized)?

(No, I’m not planning on calling the static constructor from reflection…)

Answer 1

Looks like a yes to me.

// In SomeAssembly.dll
public class TestClass
{
    public static readonly int Field;

    static TestClass()
    {
        Field = 5;
    }
}

// In its own assembly
public class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        BindingFlags bindingFlags = BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.Public;

        Assembly someAssembly = Assembly.LoadFile(@"Path\To\SomeAssembly.dll");

        object field = someAssembly.GetType("TestClass")
                                   .GetField("Field", bindingFlags)
                                   .GetValue(null);

        Console.WriteLine(field);
    }
}

Output:

5