linux-packaging-mono/docs/sources/mono-api-methods.html

<h2>Methods</h2>

	<p>Methods are represented by the <code>MonoMethod*</code>
	instances.  Various APIs surface these instances, but usually
	you will use the <a href="#method-desc">method description</a>
	API to get a handle to a Mono Method.   You can <a href="method-invoking">invoke</a> those methods from C,
	or you can probe <a href="method-working">probe various properties</a> of a method, and in particular
	its <a href="method-signature">method signature</a> or get
	some <a href="method-header">low-level information</a> about them.

	<p>The following code snippet from the Mono runtime shows you
	how to create a managed <code>System.Version</code> instance
	with four integers by looking up the constructor in the
	managed implementation of System.Version, creating an instance
	of the object, and then invoking the constructor on it.

	<div class="mapi-header">
MonoObject*
create_version (MonoDomain *domain, guint32 major, guint32 minor, guint32 build, guint32 revision)
{
    MonoClass *System_Version;
    MonoMethod *create_version;
    MonoError error;
    MonoObject *result;
    gpointer args [4];

    System_Version = mono_class_from_name (mono_defaults.corlib, "System", "Version");

    // Create a method description that we use to search for the
    // constructor method
    MonoMethodDesc *desc = mono_method_desc_new (":.ctor(int,int,int,int)", FALSE);
    create_version = mono_method_desc_search_in_class (desc, System_Version);
    mono_method_desc_free (desc);

    // Setup the parameters to pass.
    args [0] = &major;
    args [1] = &minor;
    args [2] = &build;
    args [3] = &revision;

    // Create the object instance
    result = mono_object_new_checked (domain, System_Version, &error);

    // Raise an exception in case of an error
    mono_error_raise_exception (&error);

    // Otherwise, invoke the constructor
    mono_runtime_invoke (create_version, result, args, NULL);

    // Return ther esult
    return result;
}

	</div>
	
<a name="method-desc"></a>
<h3>Method Descriptions</h3>

	<p>Methods are represented by the <code>MonoMethod*</code>
	instances.  To simplify the process of getting
	a <code>MonoMethod*</code>, you use Method Descriptors, which
	are C-strings that describe the method that you are looking
	for, and then you perform a search in either
	a <a href="mono-api-type.html">type</a>, or a
	loaded <a href="mono-api-image.html">image</a>.

	
	<p>To describe a method, you use the Method Description API.
	Method descriptions are used to locate a method in the
	executing program.   They can either be fully specified, that
	is, they would include the namespace, class, method name and
	all of its arguments or they omit the namespace and arguments
	and even use wildcard matches for the class name and method names.

	<p>You use the fully specified version to identify a
	particular method, or you can use the partial version to find
	a method or a family of methods in the code.   

	<p>Method descriptions are typically created from a C string
	representation, and take the following form:

	<p><code>[namespace.]classname:methodname[(args...)]</code>

	<p>Both classname and methodname can contain the '*' character
	which can be used to match anything.  Arguments are separated
	by commas.

	<p>You can use the type shortcuts to match the fully qualified
	parameter types.  The supported type shortcuts are:
        <code>char</code>,
        <code>bool</code>,
        <code>byte</code>,
        <code>sbyte</code>,
        <code>uint16</code>,
        <code>int16</code>,
        <code>uint</code>,
        <code>int</code>,
        <code>ulong</code>,
        <code>long</code>,
        <code>uintptr</code>,
        <code>intptr</code>,
        <code>single</code>,
        <code>double</code>,
        <code>string</code> and 
        <code>object</code>.

	<p>The type parameters can use the "&" and "*" type modifiers.
	
	<p>Examples of method descriptions:
	<ul>
		<li>"Monitor:Exit": matches classes and methods called "Monitor.Exit"
		<li>"Monitor:enter_with_atomic_var(object,bool&)":
		matches a method in the class Monitor with two
		specific type parameters.
		<li>":.ctor(int,int,int,int)": matches constructors
		that take four integers.
		<li>"System.Globalization.CultureInfo:CreateCulture(string,bool)":
		matches the CreateCultureMethod that takes a string
		and a boolean on the System.Globalization.CultureInfo class.
	</ul>

	<p>You can
	then <a href="api:mono_method_desc_search_in_image">search for
	methods in MonoImages</a>
	or <a href="api:mono_method_desc_search_in_class">search for
	methods in classes</a>. 

<h4><a name="api:mono_method_desc_new">mono_method_desc_new</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_desc_free">mono_method_desc_free</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_desc_from_method">mono_method_desc_from_method</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_desc_full_match">mono_method_desc_full_match</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_desc_match">mono_method_desc_match</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_desc_search_in_class">mono_method_desc_search_in_class</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_desc_search_in_image">mono_method_desc_search_in_image</a></h4>

<a name="method-working"></a>
<h3>Working with Methods</h3>

<h4><a name="api:mono_method_full_name">mono_method_full_name</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_get_class">mono_method_get_class</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_get_flags">mono_method_get_flags</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_get_last_managed">mono_method_get_last_managed</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_get_marshal_info">mono_method_get_marshal_info</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_get_name">mono_method_get_name</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_get_object">mono_method_get_object</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_get_param_names">mono_method_get_param_names</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_get_param_token">mono_method_get_param_token</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_get_signature">mono_method_get_signature</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_get_index">mono_method_get_index</a></h4> 
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_get_signature_full">mono_method_get_signature_full</a></h4> 
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_get_token">mono_method_get_token</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_get_unmanaged_thunk">mono_method_get_unmanaged_thunk</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_has_marshal_info">mono_method_has_marshal_info</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_verify">mono_method_verify</a></h4>

<a name="method-invoking"></a>
<h3>Invoking Methods</h3>

<h4><a name="api:mono_runtime_invoke">mono_runtime_invoke</a></h4>

If you want to invoke generic methods, you must call the method on the
"inflated" class, which you can obtain from the
<tt>mono_object_get_class()</tt>

<div class="mapi-code">
MonoClass *clazz;
MonoMethod *method;

clazz = mono_object_get_class (obj);

/*
 * If there are more Add methods declared, you
 * may use mono_method_desc_search_in_class (clazz, ":Add(T)"),
 * you must substitute ":Add(T)" with the correct type, for example
 * for List&lt;int&gt;, you would use ":Add(int)".
 */
method = mono_class_get_method_from_name (clazz, "Add", 1);
mono_runtime_invoke (method, obj, args, &amp;exception);
</div>


<h4><a name="api:mono_runtime_invoke_array">mono_runtime_invoke_array</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_runtime_delegate_invoke">mono_runtime_delegate_invoke</a></h4>

<h4><a name="api:mono_method_body_get_object">mono_method_body_get_object</a></h4>

<a name="method-signature"></a>
<h3>Method Signatures</h3>

<h4><a name="api:mono_method_signature">mono_method_signature</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_signature_explicit_this">mono_signature_explicit_this</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_signature_get_call_conv">mono_signature_get_call_conv</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_signature_get_desc">mono_signature_get_desc</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_signature_get_param_count">mono_signature_get_param_count</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_signature_get_params">mono_signature_get_params</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_signature_get_return_type">mono_signature_get_return_type</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_signature_hash">mono_signature_hash</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_signature_is_instance">mono_signature_is_instance</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_signature_param_is_out">mono_signature_param_is_out</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_signature_vararg_start">mono_signature_vararg_start</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_param_get_objects">mono_param_get_objects</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_get_method_full">mono_get_method_full</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_get_method">mono_get_method</a></h4>

<a name="method-header"></a>
<h3>Methods Header Operations</h3>

<h4><a name="api:mono_method_get_header">mono_method_get_header</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_header_get_clauses">mono_method_header_get_clauses</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_header_get_code">mono_method_header_get_code</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_header_get_locals">mono_method_header_get_locals</a></h4>
<h4><a name="api:mono_method_header_get_num_clauses">mono_method_header_get_num_clauses</a></h4>