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Standard Libraries (CLI)
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<h2 id="profiles">Profiles</h2> <p>The main standard libraries are organized into two Standard Profiles, the Kernel Profile, and the Compact Profile.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a> The following standard libraries do not belong to any profile: the Extended Array Library, the Extended Numerics Library, the Parallel Library and the Vararg Library.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> </p> <h3>Kernel Profile</h3> <p>The Kernel Profile is a subset of the Compact Profile. The Kernel Profile contains the Base Class Library (BCL) and Runtime Infrastructure Library.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a> </p> <h3>Compact Profile</h3> <p>The Compact Profile contains those libraries in the Kernel Profile as well as the Network Library, the Reflection Library and the XML Library.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="libraries">Libraries</h2> <h3>Base Class Library</h3> <p class="note">See also: <a href="/facts/List_of_data_types_of_the_Standard_Libraries/dLB6uL7t">Data types of the Base Class Library</a></p> <p>The Base Class Library is a simple runtime library for modern programming languages. It serves as the Standard for the runtime library for the language C# as well as one of the CLI Standard Libraries. It provides types to represent the built-in data types of the CLI, simple file access, custom attributes, security attributes, string manipulation, formatting, streams, collections, among other things.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a> It defines types in the following namespaces: </p> <table><tbody><tr><th>Name</th><th>Description</th></tr><tr><td>System</td><td>Defines the Object class which all <a href="/facts/Reference_type/0xLHHokA">reference type</a> objects derive from (including value-type objects) and the ValueType class which all <a href="/facts/Value_type/0xLHHokA">value type</a> objects derive from. It also defines the base data types like <a href="/facts/Integer_(computer_science)/zWabo5M9">integers</a>, <a href="/facts/Floating_point/eIckahxe">floating point numbers</a>, <a href="/facts/Character_(computing)/X2zKLFFB">character</a>, <a href="/facts/String_(computer_science)/4ChJu5WS">strings</a>, <a href="/facts/Boolean_data_type/0GWYLDoC">Boolean</a>, <a href="/facts/Enumerated_type/oQITgIYb">enumeration</a> and more. Support for the environment and platform and a <a href="/facts/Command-line_interface/R9JpGmXQ">command-line interface</a> is provided along with base classes for <a href="/facts/Exception_handling/VrJxgb9r">exceptions</a> and <a href="/facts/Attribute_(computing)/EpQSmn02">attributes</a>. It defines <a href="/facts/Array_data_type/gHJJ3XPw">arrays</a> and <a href="/facts/Delegate_(CLI)/xkPGllm2">delegates</a>, mathematical functions and many other types.</td></tr><tr><td>System.Collections</td><td>Defines many common <a href="/facts/Container_(abstract_data_type)/gsC5UcqD">container types</a> used in programming, such as <a href="/facts/Associative_array/IFGd2xcP">dictionaries</a>, <a href="/facts/Hash_table/Ht4ptDPF">hashtables</a>, <a href="/facts/List_(abstract_data_type)/9tzhAH6M">lists</a>, <a href="/facts/Queue_(abstract_data_type)/hVPjPXus">queues</a> and <a href="/facts/Stack_(abstract_data_type)/bj7l94v1">stacks</a>.</td></tr><tr><td>System.Collections.Generic</td><td>Defines <a href="/facts/Generic_programming/kqtqJk7p">generic types</a> of the container types in the System.Collections namespace.</td></tr><tr><td>System.Diagnostics</td><td>Defines types that provide the ability to diagnose applications. It includes <a href="/facts/Tracing_(software)/36dskvN5">event logging</a>, performance counters, <a href="/facts/Tracing_(software)/36dskvN5">tracing</a> and interaction with system processes.</td></tr><tr><td>System.Globalization</td><td>Defines types that define culture-related information, including language, country/region, calendars in use, format patterns for dates, currency and numbers and sort order for strings.</td></tr><tr><td>System.IO</td><td>Defines type that enable reading from and writing to different <a href="/facts/Stream_(computing)/2jtBAp0U">streams</a>, such as files or other <a href="/facts/Data_stream/57yDhBCd">data streams</a>. Also provides a connection to the <a href="/facts/File_system/FdPm90uc">file system</a>.</td></tr><tr><td>System.Security</td><td>Defines types that represent the security system and permissions.</td></tr><tr><td>System.Security.Permissions</td><td>Defines types that control access to operations and resources based on policy.</td></tr><tr><td>System.Text</td><td>Defines types that support various <a href="/facts/Character_encoding/ShJHIMoA">character encodings</a>, <a href="/facts/Regular_expression/KFL3veHX">regular expressions</a> and a more efficient mechanism for manipulating strings.</td></tr><tr><td>System.Threading</td><td>Defines types that enable <a href="/facts/Thread_(computing)/hh8WHyPd">multithreaded programming</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table> <h3>Runtime Infrastructure Library</h3> <p class="note">See also: <a href="/facts/List_of_data_types_of_the_Standard_Libraries/dLB6uL7t">Data types of the Runtime Infrastructure Library</a></p> <p>The Runtime Infrastructure Library provides the services needed by a compiler to target the CLI and the facilities needed to dynamically load types from a stream in a specified file format.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a> It defines types in the following namespaces: </p> <table><tbody><tr><th>Name</th><th>Description</th></tr><tr><td>System</td><td>Defines types for the <a href="/facts/Application_domain/88syHf1n">application domain</a>, <a href="/facts/Pointer_(computer_programming)/fPoNzy9b">pointers</a>, <a href="/facts/Handle_(computing)/gKL1X2sX">handles</a> and more.</td></tr><tr><td>System.Reflection</td><td>Defines types that provide a managed view of loaded types, methods and fields, and that can dynamically create and invoke types. These types are relevant to the <a href="/facts/Run_time_(program_lifecycle_phase)/lCxKsrzB">program runtime</a>.</td></tr><tr><td>System.Runtime.CompilerServices</td><td>Defines types that provide functionality for compiler writers who use managed code to specify <a href="/facts/Attribute_(computing)/EpQSmn02">attributes</a> in <a href="/facts/Metadata_(CLI)/IoJLcS0B">metadata</a> that affect the run-time behavior of the <a href="/facts/Virtual_Execution_System/vuQF1ntM">Virtual Execution System</a>.</td></tr><tr><td>System.Runtime.InteropServices</td><td>Defines types that support <a href="/facts/Platform_Invocation_Services/7MQWrCE8">Platform Invocation Services</a> (P/Invoke).</td></tr></tbody></table> <h3>Network Library</h3> <p class="note">See also: <a href="/facts/List_of_data_types_of_the_Standard_Libraries/dLB6uL7t">Data types of the Network Library</a></p> <p>The Network Library provides simple networking services including direct access to network ports as well as HTTP support.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a> It defines types in the following namespaces: </p> <table><tbody><tr><th>Name</th><th>Description</th></tr><tr><td>System</td><td>Defines types that provide an object representation of a <a href="/facts/Uniform_resource_identifier/UjyqxTpA">uniform resource identifier</a> (URI) and easy access to the parts of the URI.</td></tr><tr><td>System.Collections.Specialized</td><td>Defines specialized and strongly-typed collections; for example, a linked list dictionary, a bit vector, and collections that contain only strings.</td></tr><tr><td>System.Net</td><td>Defines types that provide a simple programming interface for a number of <a href="/facts/Communications_protocol/5uady7cB">network protocols</a>.</td></tr><tr><td>System.Net.Sockets</td><td>Defines type that provide a managed implementation of the <a href="/facts/Winsock/lJxCA6sc">Windows Sockets</a> (Winsock) interface for developers who need to tightly control access to the network.</td></tr></tbody></table> <h3>Reflection Library</h3> <p class="note">See also: <a href="/facts/List_of_data_types_of_the_Standard_Libraries/dLB6uL7t">Data types of the Reflection Library</a></p> <p>The Reflection Library provides the ability to examine the structure of types, create instances of types and invoke methods on types, all based on a description of the type.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11"><sup>11</sup></a> It defines types in the following namespaces: </p> <table><tbody><tr><th>Name</th><th>Description</th></tr><tr><td>System</td><td>Defines the <a href="/facts/Void_type/qbMrxVtl">void type</a>, a return value type for a method that does not return a value.</td></tr><tr><td>System.Globalization</td><td>Defines type that provide information about a specific culture (called a locale for unmanaged code development). The information includes the names for the culture, the writing system, the calendar used and formatting for dates and sort strings.</td></tr><tr><td>System.Reflection</td><td>Defines types that provide a managed view of loaded types, methods and fields, and that can dynamically create and invoke types.</td></tr><tr><td>System.Security.Permissions</td><td>Defines types that control access to operations and resources based on policy. These types are relevant to the <a href="/facts/Reflection_(computer_programming)/Nj8stFfp">reflection</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table> <h3>XML Library</h3> <p class="note">See also: <a href="/facts/List_of_data_types_of_the_Standard_Libraries/dLB6uL7t">Data types of the XML Library</a></p> <p>The XML Library provides a simple "pull-style" parser for XML. It is designed for resource-constrained devices, yet provides a simple user model.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12"><sup>12</sup></a> It defines types in the following namespace. </p> <table><tbody><tr><th>Name</th><th>Description</th></tr><tr><td>System.Xml</td><td>Defines types for processing <a href="/facts/XML/clNgUfWk">XML</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table> <h3>Extended Array Library</h3> <p class="note">See also: <a href="/facts/List_of_data_types_of_the_Standard_Libraries/dLB6uL7t">Data types of the Extended Array Library</a></p> <p>The Extended Array Library provides support for non-vector arrays. That is, arrays that have more than one dimension or arrays that have non-zero lower bounds.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13"><sup>13</sup></a> The Extended Array Library doesn't add any extra types, but it does extend the array-handling mechanism.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14"><sup>14</sup></a> </p> <h3>Extended Numerics Library</h3> <p class="note">See also: <a href="/facts/List_of_data_types_of_the_Standard_Libraries/dLB6uL7t">Data types of the Extended Numerics Library</a></p> <p>The Extended Numerics Library provides support for floating-point (System.Single, System.Double) and extended-precision (System.Decimal) data types. Like the Base Class Library, this library is directly referenced by the C# standard.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15"><sup>15</sup></a> </p> <h3>Parallel Library</h3> <p class="note">See also: <a href="/facts/List_of_data_types_of_the_Standard_Libraries/dLB6uL7t">Data types of the Parallel Library</a></p> <p>The Parallel Library provides easy parallelism for non-expert programmers, so that multithreaded CPUs can be exploited.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:16" href="#fn:16"><sup>16</sup></a> </p> <h3>Vararg Library</h3> <p class="note">See also: <a href="/facts/List_of_data_types_of_the_Standard_Libraries/dLB6uL7t">Data types of the Vararg Library</a></p> <p>The Vararg Library provides support for dealing with variable-length argument lists.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:17" href="#fn:17"><sup>17</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/List_of_data_types_of_the_Standard_Libraries/dLB6uL7t">List of data types of the Standard Libraries</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Framework_Class_Library/DtSqC9YS">Framework Class Library</a></li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm">Ecma International, Standard ECMA-335, Common Language Infrastructure (CLI), 6th edition (June 2012)</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210115182813/http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm">Archived</a> January 15, 2021, at the <a href="/facts/Wayback_Machine/nmQ3a6JC">Wayback Machine</a></li> <li><a href="http://ecma-international.org/publications/techreports/E-TR-084.htm">Ecma International, Technical Report TR/84, Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) - Information Derived from Partition IV XML File, 6th edition (June 2012)</a> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20201127015444/http://ecma-international.org/publications/techreports/E-TR-084.htm">Archived</a> November 27, 2020, at the <a href="/facts/Wayback_Machine/nmQ3a6JC">Wayback Machine</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>"IV.3 The Standard Profiles". Standard ECMA-335 – Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) (Technical report) (6th ed.). Ecma International. June 2012. p. 437. <a href="http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm" target="_blank">http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>"IV.5.8 Extended array library". Standard ECMA-335 – Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) (Technical report) (6th ed.). Ecma International. June 2012. p. 441. <a href="http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm" target="_blank">http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>"IV.5.7 Extended numerics library". Standard ECMA-335 – Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) (Technical report) (6th ed.). Ecma International. June 2012. p. 441. <a href="http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm" target="_blank">http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>"IV.5.10 Parallel library". Standard ECMA-335 – Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) (Technical report) (6th ed.). Ecma International. June 2012. p. 441. <a href="http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm" target="_blank">http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>"IV.5.9 Vararg library". Standard ECMA-335 – Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) (Technical report) (6th ed.). Ecma International. June 2012. p. 441. <a href="http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm" target="_blank">http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>"IV.3.1 The Kernel Profile". Standard ECMA-335 – Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) (Technical report) (6th ed.). Ecma International. June 2012. p. 437. <a href="http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm" target="_blank">http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>"IV.3.2 The Compact Profile". Standard ECMA-335 – Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) (Technical report) (6th ed.). Ecma International. June 2012. p. 437. <a href="http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm" target="_blank">http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>"IV.5.3 Base Class Library (BCL)". Standard ECMA-335 – Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) (Technical report) (6th ed.). Ecma International. June 2012. p. 440. <a href="http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm" target="_blank">http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>"IV.5.2 Runtime infrastructure library". Standard ECMA-335 – Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) (Technical report) (6th ed.). Ecma International. June 2012. p. 440. <a href="http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm" target="_blank">http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>"IV.5.4 Network library". Standard ECMA-335 – Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) (Technical report) (6th ed.). Ecma International. June 2012. p. 440. <a href="http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm" target="_blank">http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:11"><p>"IV.5.5 Reflection library". Standard ECMA-335 – Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) (Technical report) (6th ed.). Ecma International. June 2012. p. 440. <a href="http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm" target="_blank">http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:12"><p>"IV.5.6 XML library". Standard ECMA-335 – Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) (Technical report) (6th ed.). Ecma International. June 2012. p. 440. <a href="http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm" target="_blank">http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:13"><p>"IV.5.8 Extended array library". Standard ECMA-335 – Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) (Technical report) (6th ed.). Ecma International. June 2012. p. 441. <a href="http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm" target="_blank">http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:14"><p>King, Jason; Easton, Mark (2004). "Chapter 4: The NET Framework Dissected". In Gilmore, Jason (ed.). Cross-Platform .NET Development: Using Mono, Portable.NET, and Microsoft .NET. Apress. p. 110. ISBN 1-59059-330-8. LCCN 2004018339. <a href="1-59059-330-8" target="_blank">1-59059-330-8</a> <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:15"><p>"IV.5.7 Extended numerics library". Standard ECMA-335 – Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) (Technical report) (6th ed.). Ecma International. June 2012. p. 441. <a href="http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm" target="_blank">http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:16"><p>"IV.5.10 Parallel library". Standard ECMA-335 – Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) (Technical report) (6th ed.). Ecma International. June 2012. p. 441. <a href="http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm" target="_blank">http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:16" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:17"><p>"IV.5.9 Vararg library". Standard ECMA-335 – Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) (Technical report) (6th ed.). Ecma International. June 2012. p. 441. <a href="http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm" target="_blank">http://ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm</a> <a href="#fnref:17" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>