Article
11/18/2011

AssemblyName.GetPublicKeyToken Method

Microsoft Silverlight will reach end of support after October 2021. Learn more.

Gets the public key token, which is the last 8 bytes of the SHA-1 hash of the public key under which the application or assembly is signed.

Namespace: System.Reflection
Assembly: mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)

Syntax

'Declaration
<SecuritySafeCriticalAttribute> _
Public Function GetPublicKeyToken As Byte()

[SecuritySafeCriticalAttribute]
public byte[] GetPublicKeyToken()

Return Value

Type: array<System.Byte[]
The public key token.

Remarks

Platform Notes

Silverlight for Windows Phone

GetPublicKeyToken returns null instead of byte[0] for a byte[0] PKT or for an assembly name containing PublicKeyToken=null.

Examples

The following example gets the full name of a .NET Framework assembly, parses it by using the AssemblyName(String) constructor, and uses the GetPublicKeyToken method to retrieve and display the public key token.

Note:
To run this example, see Building Examples That Use a Demo Method and a TextBlock Control.

Imports System.Reflection

Public Class Example
   Private Const mask As Byte = 15

   Public Shared Sub Demo(ByVal outputBlock As System.Windows.Controls.TextBlock)

      ' Use AssemblyName to parse full assembly names. In this example, the 
      ' assembly is mscorlib.dll.
      Dim name As String = GetType(String).Assembly.FullName
      Dim asmName As New AssemblyName(name) 

      outputBlock.Text &= String.Format("Name: {0}" & vbLf, asmName.Name)

      outputBlock.Text &= String.Format("Version: {0}" & vbLf, asmName.Version)

      outputBlock.Text &= String.Format("CultureInfo: {0}" & vbLf, asmName.CultureInfo)

      Dim pkt As New System.Text.StringBuilder()
      For Each b As Byte In asmName.GetPublicKeyToken()
          pkt.Append(Hex(b \ 16 And mask) & Hex(b And mask))
      Next b
      outputBlock.Text &= String.Format("PublicKeyToken: {0}" & vbLf, pkt.ToString())

      outputBlock.Text &= String.Format("FullName: {0}" & vbLf, asmName.FullName)

   End Sub

End Class

' This example produces output similar to the following:
'
'Name: mscorlib
'Version: 2.0.5.0
'CultureInfo: 
'PublicKeyToken: 7CEC85D7BEA7798E
'FullName: mscorlib, Version=2.0.5.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e

using System;
using System.Reflection;

public class Example
{
   private const byte mask = 15;
   private const string hex = "0123456789ABCDEF";

   public static void Demo(System.Windows.Controls.TextBlock outputBlock)
   {
      // Use AssemblyName to parse full assembly names. In this example, the 
      // assembly is mscorlib.dll.
      string name = typeof(string).Assembly.FullName;
      AssemblyName asmName = new AssemblyName(name);

      outputBlock.Text += String.Format("Name: {0}\n", asmName.Name);

      outputBlock.Text += String.Format("Version: {0}\n", asmName.Version);

      outputBlock.Text += String.Format("CultureInfo: {0}\n", asmName.CultureInfo);

      System.Text.StringBuilder pkt = new System.Text.StringBuilder();
      foreach( byte b in asmName.GetPublicKeyToken() )
      {
         pkt.Append(hex[b / 16 & mask]);
         pkt.Append(hex[b & mask]);
      }
      outputBlock.Text += String.Format("PublicKeyToken: {0}\n", pkt.ToString());

      outputBlock.Text += String.Format("FullName: {0}\n", asmName.FullName);
   }
}

/* This example produces output similar to the following:

Name: mscorlib
Version: 2.0.5.0
CultureInfo: 
PublicKeyToken: 7CEC85D7BEA7798E
FullName: mscorlib, Version=2.0.5.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7cec85d7bea7798e
 */

Version Information

Silverlight

Supported in: 5, 4, 3

Silverlight for Windows Phone

Supported in: Windows Phone OS 7.1, Windows Phone OS 7.0

XNA Framework

Supported in: Xbox 360, Windows Phone OS 7.0

Platforms

For a list of the operating systems and browsers that are supported by Silverlight, see Supported Operating Systems and Browsers.

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