C# Why are private methods not shown in this reflection example

Question

I am learning C# and was trying a simple Reflection Example. I am trying to get the names of methods from a class. Here's The code:

using System;
using System.Reflection;

namespace Practice
{
    class ReflectionExamples
    {
        private int Sum(int a, int b)
        {
            return a + b;
        }

        public int GetSum(int a, int b)
        {
            int c = Sum(a, b);

            return c;

        }
    }

    class ReflectionDemo
    {
        public static void Execute() // Main calls this
        {
            var a = typeof(ReflectionExamples);

            MethodInfo[] mi = a.GetMethods(); //Using BindingFlags.NonPublic does not show any results
            foreach (MethodInfo m in mi)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(m.Name);
            }
        }
    }
}

The output from this is(Sum is missing):

GetNum
ToString
Equals
GetHashCode
GetType

Try `BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance` [Demo](https://ideone.com/jUyfUN) — Sebastian Schumann, Nov 07 '17 at 06:25
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2267277/get-private-properties-method-of-base-class-with-reflection — Salah Akbari, Nov 07 '17 at 06:26
`GetMethods` without parameters defaults to `BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.Public`. — Evk, Nov 07 '17 at 06:39

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

The documentation states (scroll about halfway down the page):

Note

You must specify Instance or Static along with Public or NonPublic or no members will be returned.

The following is also mentioned for Type.GetMethods(BindingFlags):

You must specify either BindingFlags.Instance or BindingFlags.Static in order to get a return.

Specify BindingFlags.NonPublic to include non-public methods (that is, private, internal, and protected methods) in the search. Only protected and internal methods on base classes are returned; private methods on base classes are not returned.

Therefore you need to specify both BindingFlags.NonPublic and BindingFlags.Instance:

MethodInfo[] mi = a.GetMethods(BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);

C# Why are private methods not shown in this reflection example

1 Answers1