Use Reflection.Emit to create types that reference each other.

Question

I want to generate types through reflection at runtime that reference each other.

With static code, I would do this

public class Order
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public Customer Customer { get; set; }
}

public class Customer
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public Order Order { get; set; }
}

I can successfully create my Order and my OrderDetails Type with value type properties.

The code looks like this:

var aName = new System.Reflection.AssemblyName("DynamicAssembly");
var ab = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.DefineDynamicAssembly(
    aName, System.Reflection.Emit.AssemblyBuilderAccess.Run);
var mb = ab.DefineDynamicModule(aName.Name);

var tb = mb.DefineType("Order",
    System.Reflection.TypeAttributes.Public, typeof(Object));

var pbId = tb.DefineProperty("Id", PropertyAttributes.None, typeof(int), null);

Now I am stuck on this line:

var pbCustomer = tb.DefineProperty("Customer", PropertyAttributes.None, ???, null);

I need to pass the property type to the DefineProperty method, but the type does not currently exist. Now I could just create a type builder for the client at this moment and use it tb.CreateType()to get the type, but that will not help, because the client also needs a link to the order.

Answer 1

, TypeBuilder Type, CreateType. , , , .