Common Intermediate Language (CIL)

CIL (Common Intermediate Language) is a bytecode and the language of the .NET platform into which compiled source code of high level language is written. Its operations are based on a stack and it is executed by a virtual machine.

It is also called IL or MSIL (Microsoft Intermediate Language) which was its original name before the standardization of the CLI (Common Language Infrastructure) which he belongs and with which it should not be confused.

The source code from high-level language (C#, Basic or other language) is compiled in CIL and stored into an assembly.
The assembly is stored in a file in the PE (Portable Executable) format, which is also that of .dll and .exe, and includes a manifest file containing the metadata of the assembly, which is the interface of the code with other components of the software that uses it.

The CIL language can execute operations in the following categories:

·         Arithmetic.

·         Logics and control (loop, if, etc.).

·         Calling functions and methods.

·         Stack management.

·         Loading and storing data.

·         Type converting (number into string...).

·         Exceptions.

·         Concurrency.