Assembly.Load Method (System.Reflection)
By dotnet-bot
Archived: 2026-04-05 17:21:50 UTC
Source:
Assembly.CoreCLR.cs
Source:
Assembly.CoreCLR.cs
Source:
Assembly.CoreCLR.cs
Source:
Assembly.CoreCLR.cs
Source:
Assembly.CoreCLR.cs
Loads an assembly with the specified name.
public static System.Reflection.Assembly Load(string assemblyString);
Parameters
assemblyString
String
The long or short form of the assembly name.
Returns
The loaded assembly.
Exceptions
assemblyString is a zero-length string.
assemblyString is not found.
A file that was found could not be loaded.
assemblyString is not a valid assembly for the currently loaded runtime.
https://learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/api/system.reflection.assembly.load
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Examples
The following example loads an assembly given its fully qualified name, and lists all the types contained in the
specified assembly. For information about how to obtain the fully qualified assembly name, see Assembly Names.
using System;
using System.Reflection;
class Class1
{
 public static void Main()
 {
 // You must supply a valid fully qualified assembly name.
 Assembly SampleAssembly = Assembly.Load
 ("SampleAssembly, Version=1.0.2004.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=8744b20f8da049e3");
 // Display all the types contained in the specified assembly.
 foreach (Type oType in SampleAssembly.GetTypes()) {
 Console.WriteLine(oType.Name);
 }
 }
}
Remarks
In .NET Core/.NET 5+, the target assembly will be loaded into the current AssemblyLoadContext or into the
AssemblyLoadContext.CurrentContextualReflectionContext context if it's set. For more information on assembly
loading, see Managed assembly loading algorithm.
To load the correct assembly, it's recommended to call the Load method by passing the long form of the
assembly name. The long form of an assembly name consists of its simple name (such as "System" for the
System.dll assembly) along with its version, culture, public key token, and optionally its processor architecture. It
corresponds to the assembly's FullName property. The following example illustrates the use of a long name to load
the System.dll assembly for .NET Framework 4:
using System;
using System.Reflection;
public class Example
{
 public static void Main()
 {
 string longName = "system, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089";
 Assembly assem = Assembly.Load(longName);
 if (assem == null)
 Console.WriteLine("Unable to load assembly...");
https://learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/api/system.reflection.assembly.load
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else
 Console.WriteLine(assem.FullName);
 }
}
// The example displays the following output:
// system, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089
FileLoadException is thrown if assemblyString specifies the full assembly name, and the first assembly that
matches the simple name has a different version, culture, or public key token. The loader does not continue
probing for other assemblies that match the simple name.
In the .NET Framework version 2.0, processor architecture is added to assembly identity, and can be specified as
part of assembly name strings. For example, "ProcessorArchitecture=msil". However, the recommended way to
specify an assembly name is to create an AssemblyName object and pass it to an appropriate overload of the Load
method. See AssemblyName.ProcessorArchitecture.
See also
AssemblyName
LoadFrom(String)
How the Runtime Locates Assemblies
Applies to
.NET 11 and other versions
Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/api/system.reflection.assembly.load
https://learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/api/system.reflection.assembly.load
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