What is Metadata

Metadata describes every type and member defined in your code in a language-neutral manner. Metadata stores the following information:

Description of the assembly.

• Identity (name, version, culture, public key).
• The types that are exported.
• Other assemblies that this assembly depends on.
• Security permissions needed to run.

Description of types.

• Name, visibility, base class, and interfaces implemented.
• Members (methods, fields, properties, events, nested types).

Attributes.

• Additional descriptive elements that modify types and members.

Metadata is binary information describing your program that is stored either in a common language runtime portable executable (PE) file or in memory. When you compile your code into a PE file, metadata is inserted into one portion of the file, and your code is converted to Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL) and inserted into another portion of the file. Every type and member that is defined and referenced in a module or assembly is described within metadata. When code is executed, the runtime loads metadata into memory and references it to discover information about your code's classes, members, inheritance, and so on.