Late binding MissingMethodException

Question

I'm learning C#, currently in the late binding chapter. I wrote the following for test but it generates MissingMethodException. I loaded a custom private DLL and invoked a method successfully and then I tried to do the same with a GAC DLL but I failed.

I don't know what's wrong with the following code:

//Load the assembly
Assembly dll = Assembly.Load(@"System.Windows.Forms, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089 ");

//Get the MessageBox type
Type msBox = dll.GetType("System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox");

//Make an instance of it
object msb = Activator.CreateInstance(msBox);

//Finally invoke the Show method
msBox.GetMethod("Show").Invoke(msb, new object[] { "Hi", "Message" });

Answer 1

You are getting a MissingMethodException on this line:

object msb = Activator.CreateInstance(msBox);

Because there is no public constructor on the MessageBox class. This class is supposed to be used via its static methods like this:

MessageBox.Show("Hi", "Message");

To invoke a static method via reflection, you can pass null as the first parameter to the Invoke method like this:

//Load the assembly
Assembly dll =
    Assembly.Load(
        @"System.Windows.Forms, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089 ");

//Get the MessageBox type
Type msBox = dll.GetType("System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox");

//Finally invoke the Show method
msBox
    .GetMethod(
        "Show",
        //We need to find the method that takes two string parameters
        new [] {typeof(string), typeof(string)})
    .Invoke(
        null, //For static methods
        new object[] { "Hi", "Message" });