What is metadata in .NET?

Question

I googled several sites to understand what metadata is in .NET and it means.

I\'m still new to C# WPF desktop application programming. Back when I was

Answer 1

don't make it complicated it's just ---Data(information) about Data.

just think about the Meta tag in HTML, it hold information about page, keyword, author, last modified. it means it hold information about a data that is your html page.

When we talk in terms of C#, Metadata is stored in one section of a .NET Framework portable executable (PE) file, while Microsoft intermediate language (MSIL) is stored in another section of the PE file. The metadata portion of the file contains a series of table and heap data structures. The MSIL portion contains MSIL and metadata tokens that reference the metadata portion of the PE file. Each metadata table holds information about the elements of your program. For example, one metadata table describes the classes in your code, another table describes the fields, and so on. If you have ten classes in your code, the class table will have tens rows, one for each class. Metadata tables reference other tables and heaps. For example, the metadata table for classes references the table for methods. Metadata also stores information in four heap structures: string, blob, user string, and GUID. All the strings used to name types and members are stored in the string heap. For example, a method table does not directly store the name of a particular method, but points to the method's name stored in the string heap.

if this makes the interest in you refer--https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xcd8txaw%28v=vs.110%29.aspx