Version Class
[ This article is for Windows Phone 8 developers. If you’re developing for Windows 10, see the latest documentation. ]
Represents the version number of an assembly, operating system, or the common language runtime. This class cannot be inherited.
Assembly: mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)
The Version type exposes the following members.
| Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|
 | Version(String) | Initializes a new instance of the Version class using the specified string. |
| Version(Int32, Int32) | Initializes a new instance of the Version class using the specified major and minor values. |
| Version(Int32, Int32, Int32) | Initializes a new instance of the Version class using the specified major, minor, and build values. |
| Version(Int32, Int32, Int32, Int32) | Initializes a new instance of the Version class with the specified major, minor, build, and revision numbers. |
| Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|
 | Build | Gets the value of the build component of the version number for the current Version object. |
| Major | Gets the value of the major component of the version number for the current Version object. |
| MajorRevision | Gets the high 16 bits of the revision number. |
| Minor | Gets the value of the minor component of the version number for the current Version object. |
| MinorRevision | Gets the low 16 bits of the revision number. |
| Revision | Gets the value of the revision component of the version number for the current Version object. |
| Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| Clone | Returns a new Version object whose value is the same as the current Version object. |
| CompareTo(Object) | Compares the current Version object to a specified object and returns an indication of their relative values. |
| CompareTo(Version) | Compares the current Version object to a specified Version object and returns an indication of their relative values. |
| Equals(Object) | Returns a value indicating whether the current Version object is equal to a specified object. (Overrides Object::Equals(Object).) |
| Equals(Version) | Returns a value indicating whether the current Version object and a specified Version object represent the same value. |
 | Finalize | Allows an object to try to free resources and perform other cleanup operations before the Object is reclaimed by garbage collection. (Inherited from Object.) |
| GetHashCode | Returns a hash code for the current Version object. (Overrides Object::GetHashCode().) |
| GetType | Gets the Type of the current instance. (Inherited from Object.) |
| MemberwiseClone | Creates a shallow copy of the current Object. (Inherited from Object.) |
 | Parse | Converts the string representation of a version number to an equivalent Version object. |
| ToString() | Converts the value of the current Version object to its equivalent String representation. (Overrides Object::ToString().) |
| ToString(Int32) | Converts the value of the current Version object to its equivalent String representation. A specified count indicates the number of components to return. |
| TryParse | Tries to convert the string representation of a version number to an equivalent Version object, and returns a value that indicates whether the conversion succeeded. |
| Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|
 | Equality | Determines whether two specified Version objects are equal. |
| GreaterThan | Determines whether the first specified Version object is greater than the second specified Version object. |
| GreaterThanOrEqual | Determines whether the first specified Version object is greater than or equal to the second specified Version object. |
| Inequality | Determines whether two specified Version objects are not equal. |
| LessThan | Determines whether the first specified Version object is less than the second specified Version object. |
| LessThanOrEqual | Determines whether the first specified Version object is less than or equal to the second Version object. |
Version numbers consist of two to four components: major, minor, build, and revision. The major and minor components are required; the build and revision components are optional, but the build component is required if the revision component is defined. All defined components must be integers greater than or equal to 0. The format of the version number is as follows (optional components are shown in square brackets ([ and ]):
major.minor[.build[.revision]]
The components are used by convention as follows:
Major: Assemblies with the same name but different major versions are not interchangeable. A higher version number might indicate a major rewrite of a product where backward compatibility cannot be assumed.
Minor: If the name and major version number on two assemblies are the same, but the minor version number is different, this indicates significant enhancement with the intention of backward compatibility. This higher minor version number might indicate a point release of a product or a fully backward-compatible new version of a product.
Build: A difference in build number represents a recompilation of the same source. Different build numbers might be used when the processor, platform, or compiler changes.
Revision: Assemblies with the same name, major, and minor version numbers but different revisions are intended to be fully interchangeable. A higher revision number might be used in a build that fixes a security hole in a previously released assembly.
Subsequent versions of an assembly that differ only by build or revision numbers are considered to be Hotfix updates of the prior version.
Assigning Version Information to Assemblies
Ordinarily, the Version class is not used to assign a version number to an assembly. Instead, the AssemblyVersionAttribute class is used to define an assembly's version.
Retrieving Version Information
Version objects are most frequently used to store version information about some system or application component (such as the operating system), the common language runtime, the current application's executable, or a particular assembly. The following examples illustrate some of the most common scenarios:
Retrieving the operating system version. The following example uses the OperatingSystem::Version property to retrieve the version number of the operating system.
Retrieving the version of the common language runtime. The following example uses the Environment::Version property to retrieve version information about the common language runtime.
Comparing Version Objects
You can use the CompareTo method to determine whether one Version object is earlier than, the same as, or later than a second Version object. The following example indicates that Version 2.1 is later than Version 2.0.
For two versions to be equal, the major, minor, build, and revision numbers of the first Version object must be identical to those of the second Version object. If the build or revision number of a Version object is undefined, that Version object is considered to be earlier than a Version object whose build or revision number is equal to zero. The following example illustrates this by comparing three Version objects that have undefined version components.