Is it possible to dynamically compile and execute C# code fragments?

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 c

Answer 1

I recently needed to spawn processes for unit testing. This post was useful as I created a simple class to do that with either code as a string or code from my project. To build this class, you'll need the ICSharpCode.Decompiler and Microsoft.CodeAnalysis NuGet packages. Here's the class:

using ICSharpCode.Decompiler;
using ICSharpCode.Decompiler.CSharp;
using ICSharpCode.Decompiler.TypeSystem;
using Microsoft.CodeAnalysis;
using Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Reflection;

public static class CSharpRunner
{
   public static object Run(string snippet, IEnumerable references, string typeName, string methodName, params object[] args) =>
      Invoke(Compile(Parse(snippet), references), typeName, methodName, args);

   public static object Run(MethodInfo methodInfo, params object[] args)
   {
      var refs = methodInfo.DeclaringType.Assembly.GetReferencedAssemblies().Select(n => Assembly.Load(n));
      return Invoke(Compile(Decompile(methodInfo), refs), methodInfo.DeclaringType.FullName, methodInfo.Name, args);
   }

   private static Assembly Compile(SyntaxTree syntaxTree, IEnumerable references = null)
   {
      if (references is null) references = new[] { typeof(object).Assembly, typeof(Enumerable).Assembly };
      var mrefs = references.Select(a => MetadataReference.CreateFromFile(a.Location));
      var compilation = CSharpCompilation.Create(Path.GetRandomFileName(), new[] { syntaxTree }, mrefs, new CSharpCompilationOptions(OutputKind.DynamicallyLinkedLibrary));

      using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
      {
         var result = compilation.Emit(ms);
         if (result.Success)
         {
            ms.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
            return Assembly.Load(ms.ToArray());
         }
         else
         {
            throw new InvalidOperationException(string.Join("\n", result.Diagnostics.Where(diagnostic => diagnostic.IsWarningAsError || diagnostic.Severity == DiagnosticSeverity.Error).Select(d => $"{d.Id}: {d.GetMessage()}")));
         }
      }
   }

   private static SyntaxTree Decompile(MethodInfo methodInfo)
   {
      var decompiler = new CSharpDecompiler(methodInfo.DeclaringType.Assembly.Location, new DecompilerSettings());
      var typeInfo = decompiler.TypeSystem.MainModule.Compilation.FindType(methodInfo.DeclaringType).GetDefinition();
      return Parse(decompiler.DecompileTypeAsString(typeInfo.FullTypeName));
   }

   private static object Invoke(Assembly assembly, string typeName, string methodName, object[] args)
   {
      var type = assembly.GetType(typeName);
      var obj = Activator.CreateInstance(type);
      return type.InvokeMember(methodName, BindingFlags.Default | BindingFlags.InvokeMethod, null, obj, args);
   }

   private static SyntaxTree Parse(string snippet) => CSharpSyntaxTree.ParseText(snippet);
}

To use it, call the Run methods as below:

void Demo1()
{
   const string code = @"
   public class Runner
   {
      public void Run() { System.IO.File.AppendAllText(@""C:\Temp\NUnitTest.txt"", System.DateTime.Now.ToString(""o"") + ""\n""); }
   }";

   CSharpRunner.Run(code, null, "Runner", "Run");
}

void Demo2()
{
   CSharpRunner.Run(typeof(Runner).GetMethod("Run"));
}

public class Runner
{
   public void Run() { System.IO.File.AppendAllText(@"C:\Temp\NUnitTest.txt", System.DateTime.Now.ToString("o") + "\n"); }
}