| ClassAttr ::= … |
|---|
| ansi |
| autochar |
| unicode |
These attributes are for interoperation with unmanaged code. They specify the default behavior to be used when calling a method (static, instance, or virtual) on the class, that has an argument or return type of System.String and does not itself specify marshalling behavior. Only one value shall be specified for any type, and the default value is ansi. The interoperation attributes are:
ansi specifies that marshalling shall be to and from ANSI strings.
autochar specifies marshalling behavior (either ANSI or Unicode), depending on the platform on which the CLI is running.
unicode specifies that marshalling shall be to and from Unicode strings.
In addition to these three attributes, §II.23.1.15 specifies an additional set of bit patterns (CustomFormatClass and CustomStringFormatMask), which have no standardized meaning. If these bits are set, but an implementation has no support for them, a System.NotSupportedException is thrown.