What is assembly in .Net Framework ?

An assembly is a collection of types (namespaces, classes, struct, interfaces etc.) and resources that are built to work together and form a logical unit of functionality. Assembly can be .exe or .dll depends on type of application.

If application is console then .exe is generated & if application is Class Library then .dll is generated.

Suppose we have created one console application ‘Test’ as below,

In this application we have types (interface as ‘Interface1’ and class as ’program.cs’) so when we build this application one .exe will be generated. In this example test.exe will be generated.

Generated .exe can be viewed at -> Project folder -> bin -> debug -> ApplicationName.exe

Here assembly generated at path -> Csharp (solution name) -> Test (appliation name) -> bin -> debug

Assembly generated -> Test.exe

So now Test.exe (assembly) will have collections of types (Interface1 and Program) and resoruces which forms as logical unit of funcationality.

Assembly name consists of 4 parts,

a) Simple textual name

b) Version Number 

c) Culture information

d)  Public key token