When you create a project in Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, this attribute is automatically applied with an empty string value. You can set its value in Visual Studio 2005 by selecting the Properties for the project from the File menu, and then by clicking Assembly Information. The attribute is saved in the AssemblyInfo file in your project, and it must be removed before you can specify it in code; otherwise, you will get an error that the attribute cannot be applied multiple times.

When you right-click the assembly file in Windows Explorer, this attribute appears as the Comments value on the Version tab of the file properties dialog box.

The following code example sets the AssemblyDescriptionAttribute for a simple assembly and indicates whether or not it was defined.

Imports System
Imports System.Reflection

<Assembly:AssemblyDescriptionAttribute("My Utility")> 

' Note: The suffix "Attribute" can be omitted:
' <Assembly:AssemblyTitle("A title example")>

Public Class Test
    Public Shared Sub Main()

        ' Get the assembly.
        Dim asm As [Assembly] = [Assembly].GetCallingAssembly

        ' Verify that the description is applied.
        Dim aType As Type = GetType(AssemblyDescriptionAttribute)

        Console.WriteLine("Description applied: {0}", _
            asm.IsDefined(aType, False))

    End Sub
End Class

' The output is:
' Description Applied: True

using System;
using System.Reflection;

[assembly:AssemblyDescriptionAttribute("My Utility")]
public class Test {

    public static void Main() 
    {
        //  Get the assembly.
        Assembly asm = Assembly.GetCallingAssembly();

        //  Verify that the description is applied.
        Type aType = typeof(AssemblyDescriptionAttribute);
        Console.WriteLine("Description applied: {0}", 
            asm.IsDefined(aType, false));
    }
}
//  The output is:
//  Description Applied: True

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98, Windows CE, Windows Mobile for Smartphone, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC, Xbox 360, Zune

.NET Framework

.NET Compact Framework

XNA Framework

Reference

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