When I declare a class as internal, why does the IL show it as private?

Question

If I declare a class as internal, why does the IL show it as private?

internal class Thing

.class private auto ansi beforefieldinit Thing.Thing
       exten         


        

Answer 1

From IL's point of view, private means private to the assembly, i.e. internal in C#.

In C#, it is not possible to mark types as private if they are not nested. IL's equivalent accessibility for such types is nested private.

So we have:

• C#'s internal -> IL's private (to the assembly)
• C#'s private -> IL's nested private (to the enclosing type)