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Is there any way to see the source code for methods that are implemented externally in the .NET framework?

I know about Reference Source which is a great resource, however a lot of the core classes in the .NET framework are implemented externally (I assume in C++?).

For example I am very interested in the internal workings of of the class String but almost half of the methods are declared with the extern keyword including this[int index] which appears to actually hold the characters in the string.

Where can I find the source code for String.this[int index] or String.nativeCompareOrdinalEx(String strA, int indexA, String strB, int indexB, int count) and other externally implemented methods?

Also, is there a particular reason why so much of the core framework classes are implemented externally? Is it so that they could utilize existing code or for performance reasons or something else?

share|improve this question
    
Good question. As far as I know, it has not been published. – Jonathan Wood Nov 5 '15 at 17:20
    
You've got to do some digging in the coreclr repo. For example, I believe String.nativeCompareOrdinalEx it is mapped to COMString::CompareOrdinalEx found here. Look at the external call list and try to find the function mapping. – mike z Nov 5 '15 at 17:25
    
@mikez The external call list is very helpful and is exactly what I am looking for. Any idea the mapping for String.this[int index]? – Jacob Schneider Nov 5 '15 at 17:41
    
@JacobSchneider It might be FCIntrinsic("get_Chars", COMString::GetCharAt, CORINFO_INTRINSIC_StringGetChar) but that's just a guess. – mike z Nov 5 '15 at 17:42
up vote 1 down vote accepted

For the new, community, version you can dig in the github, that's where I found the implementation of decimal subtraction (or were I was pointed to by SO in fact)

CoreCLR / src

You have roslyn code there too:

Roslyn at Github

share|improve this answer
    
Using the CoreCLR in combination with the mapping that mikez pointed out gave me the source code exactly. – Jacob Schneider Nov 5 '15 at 17:42

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