Version 2.0 of the ILAsm compiler supports the verbal description of the custom attribute value blob. This makes reading and writing the custom attribute values quite a lot easier.
The definition of a serialized primitive type is similar to the definition of the fields’ and properties’ initialization values (see Chapter 9). For example, the value 0x1234 of an int32 parameter from the previous section is expressed as int32(0x1234). The values of Boolean parameters are expressed as bool(true) or bool(false).
The definition of a string begins with the keyword string, followed by the single-quoted string value in parentheses. For example, the string Common Language Runtime from the previous section would be represented as string('Common Language Runtime'). To express a null-reference string, the construct string(nullref)
is used.
The definition of the serialized types (instances of [mscorlib]System.Type) begins with the keyword type, followed either by the type name in ILAsm notation or by keyword class and the single-quoted class name in Reflection notation:
or
To express a null-reference type, the construct type(nullref) is used.
The definition of a boxed value of a primitive value type begins with the keyword object, followed by the definition of the primitive type in parentheses, such as object(int32(0x1234)).
The definition of an array contains the element count in square brackets and the space-delimited sequence of values in parentheses, such as
or
The definition of a name/value pair, denoting the initialization of a field or a property,begins with the keyword field or property, respectively, followed by the type of the field(property) and its name, followed by the equality symbol and the definition of the serialized initialization value as described previously. For example:
property string yyy = string('Hello World!')
property enum MyEnum yyy = int32(2)
All definitions of the serialized initialization values comprising the custom attribute value blob are written in space-delimited sequence and enclosed in curly braces.