Reflection in the .NET Framework

As always, it is good to start with the main definition (MSDN source), which states that:

The classes in the System.Reflection namespace, together with System.Type, enable you to obtain information about loaded assemblies and the types defined within them, such as classes, interfaces, and value types. You can also use Reflection to create type instances at run time, and to invoke and access them.

Remember, as we mentioned in the first chapter, that the organization of assemblies is such that they contain modules, which in turn contain types that contain members. Reflection techniques allow you to find out (introspect) which modules, types, and members are present inside a given assembly.

Therefore, when we access any member via Interop, there's a hierarchy of info properties linked to it: the generic member's info, its System.Type (the type it belongs to) namespace, the method base, and also information related to its properties, fields and events, as the next...