Purpose of Metadata

Metadata has many uses. Here are some of them:

• Metadata removes the need for header and library files when compiling, because all the information about the referenced types/members is contained in one file along with the IL that implements those type/members. Compilers can read metadata directly from managed modules.
• Visual Studio uses metadata to help you write code. Its IntelliSense feature parses metadata to tell you what methods a type offers and what parameters that method expects.
• The CLR code verification process uses metadata to ensure that your code performs only “safe” operations.
• Metadata allows an object’s fields to be serialized into a memory block, remoted to another machine, and then deserialized, recreating the object and its state on the remote machine.
• Metadata allows the garbage collector to track the lifetime of objects. For any object, the garbage collector can determine the type of the object, and from the metadata it knows which fields within that object refer to other objects