How To Get AssemblyName of the application

I am trying to load a form dynamically at runtime.  I want to get a handle to the Form just from the form's name.  So far it seems like CreateInstanceWithUnwrap should do what I want.  Unfortunately I'm not sure how to get the AssemblyName of the Application itself.  Its a simple Windows Form app.  Here is the code I'm using:

AppDomain currentDomain = AppDomain.CurrentDomain;
object instance = currentDomain.CreateInstanceAndUnwrap( "", "Form2" );

I was assuming that if you didn't pass in the first parameter that the current Assembly would be assumed.  Unfortunately I get the error: String cannot have zero length.

Is there an easier way to do this   Or how do I get the Assembly Name for the application itself.  I looked in AssemblyInfo.cs but didn't see anything promising there...

Any ideas

Thanks,
David House

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How To Get AssemblyName of the application

Minh Tan Duong
Thanks for all the tips. All the information really helps.. :)
swart
Or, if you know exactly which form you want to deal with simply use typeof (or GetType in Visual Basic)

Form2 frm = (Form2)Activator.CreateInstance(typeof(Form2));
DARK_IBO
I think you can do this with less code:

Assembly a = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
Type formType = a.GetType("WindowsApplication6.Form2");
Form f = (Form)Activator.CreateInstance(formType);
f.Show();

This is more efficient than using an object handle API like CreateInstanceAndUnwrap. This API is designed to be used when you need to communicate across an app domain boundary.
JudahR
You need to use either Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly() or Assembly.GetEntryAssembly(), depending on what you need.

I did the following and it worked.

First add your using statements:

<b>using System.Reflection;</b>

Then in a Button's click event:

<b>Form1 frm = (Form1)AppDomain.CurrentDomain.CreateInstanceAndUnwrap (Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().FullName, typeof(Form1).ToString());
frm.ShowDialog();</b>

Good luck
- mike
Kim Schjefstad
Thank you very much! That got me in the right direction. Here is the code I ended up with:

Form f2 = (Form)AppDomain.CurrentDomain.CreateInstanceAndUnwrap( Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().FullName,"WindowsApplication6.Form2" );
f2.Show();

This way I don't have to have prior knowledge of the Form before loading and showing it. The Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().FullName was the piece that I was missing. And also it has to be "WindowsApplication6.Form2", not just "Form2". I figured that out by looking at the result of typeof(Form1).ToString().

Thanks for all the help!
David
How To Get AssemblyName of the application

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