Is there a way to force application to load references at runtime?

Question

I do not want to dynamic load libraries via code.

I want to do something like follows:

//first assembly
public void Go()
{
    //second assembly does not loaded yet
    var s = new TestItem(); //at this point second assembly will be loaded before calling the constructor
}

//second assembly
public class TestItem
{
    public TestItem()
    {

    }
}

i.e. I want to load referenced libraries only when a member from it's assembly will be called. Is it possible? And if it is possible - how can I do this?

Answer 1

As Damien_The_Unbeliever already pointed out in the comments assemblies are loaded dynamically whenever a type from it is used. Depending on where a type is used this happens when a Type is loaded (Properties, Fields, MethodParameters ...) or when a method is invoked (local variables, static calls).

In your example if you really want to load another assembly based on a condition I suggest to place it in another method. This way the other assembly is only loaded when GoDeep() is called.

//first assembly
public void Go()
{
    if (condition)
        GoDeep();
}
[MethodImpl(Met‌​hodImplOptions.NoInlining)]
private void GoDeep()
{
    var s = new TestItem(); //at this point second assembly will be loaded 
}

Fun fact: This the reason that FileNotFoundExceptions are not thrown at application startup but sometimes maybe days later when the user finally clicked a button that would have used the missing file.

Edit: To make sure the method is not inlined in Release this was added for the JIT. I want to add I would not use this approach at all because it is, to say the least, risky and may cause application failure.