How to pass a variable with CSharpCodeProvider?

Question

I need to create an EXE file with my application, I can pass strings with manipulating the string format but I cannot pass the other variables that I need to ex:byte array, here is my code if this helps:

using Microsoft.CSharp;
using System;
using System.CodeDom.Compiler;
using System.Windows;

namespace ACompiler.CompWorker
{
    class CompilerWorker
    {
        public static byte[] testarray = SomeClass.SomeArray;
        public static string Key = "Testkey12";
        public static void Compile()
        {
            CSharpCodeProvider CompileProvider = new CSharpCodeProvider();

            CompilerParameters CompileProviderParameters = new CompilerParameters(new[] { "mscorlib.dll", "System.Core.dll" }, AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + "Compiled.exe", true);
            CompileProviderParameters.GenerateExecutable = true;


            string test= @"using System;

namespace Tests
    {
        class Program
        {
            static void Main(string[] args)
            {
                byte[] Content = " + testarray + @";
                string Key = """ + Key + @""";
                Console.WriteLine(""Key: "" + EKey);
                Console.WriteLine(Content);
                Console.ReadLine();
            }
        }
    }
";

            var Result = CompileProvider.CompileAssemblyFromSource(CompileProviderParameters, test);
        }
    }
}

Basically I want to move the "testarray" into the compiled app, I hope someone can point me to the right direction!

Andy · Accepted Answer · 2020-09-01T05:22:22.697

The trick is to "serialize" the data back in to code the compiler can compile. Try this:

var arrayCode = "new byte[] { " + string.Join(", ", testarray) + " }";

string test = @"using System;
namespace Tests
    {
        class Program
        {
            static void Main(string[] args)
            {
                byte[] Content = " + arrayCode + @";
                string Key = """ + Key + @""";
                Console.WriteLine(""Key: "" + EKey);
                foreach(byte b in Content)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine(b.ToString());
                }
                Console.ReadLine();
            }
        }
    }
";

Keep in mind, you can't do Console.WriteLine on a byte array object and have it spit out each item. You will have to iterate over the items to print them out. I updated your code to do it the proper way.

It works but if the array is too large then my program freezes... — Antwns, Sep 01 '20 at 05:47
Nevermind, I had a messagebox that'd display the "test" string and it would end up being too large to display.. Haha — Antwns, Sep 01 '20 at 05:51

How to pass a variable with CSharpCodeProvider?

1 Answers1