BindingFlagsNonPublic

BindingFlagsNonPublic is a value within the System.Reflection namespace in the .NET framework. It is a member of the BindingFlags enumeration, which is used to specify how members are searched for and invoked. When the BindingFlagsNonPublic flag is used in conjunction with other BindingFlags, it instructs the reflection process to include non-public members (such as private, internal, or protected members) in the search.

Typically, when you use reflection to search for members of a type, the default behavior is to only consider public members. For example, if you are trying to find a method or a property on an object, and you don't specify BindingFlagsNonPublic, the reflection API will only return those members that are declared as public.

By adding BindingFlagsNonPublic to your binding flags, you broaden the scope of the search to encompass members that are not accessible from outside the defining type or assembly. This is particularly useful for tasks such as unit testing, debugging, or when you need to inspect or manipulate the internal state of an object for advanced scenarios. It is important to use this flag judiciously, as accessing non-public members can break encapsulation and make code more fragile and harder to maintain. Common combinations include BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic to search for non-public instance members, or BindingFlags.Static | BindingFlags.NonPublic for non-public static members.