Why is it not possible to get local variable names using Reflection?

Question

If I have a code like this:

public class Program
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        string bar = \"\";
        int foo = 24;
    }
}

Answer 1

I think you're looking at a Debug build. The id part of the .locals declaration is optional - so there's no guarantee that the names are retained.

See MS Partition II which describes the IL Metadata, section 15.4.1.3 for further details:

MethodBodyItem ::= …
   .locals [ init ] ‘(’ LocalsSignature ‘)’
LocalsSignature ::= Local [ ‘,’ Local ]*
Local ::= Type [ Id ]