What to Know About Value Types and Reference Types in C#
page 1 of 8
Published: 07 Jul 2008
Abstract
Value types and reference types are important concepts in C#. In this article, Brendan describes these concepts in an easy way. This beginners' tutorial is written to help people unfamiliar with these concepts to gain a basic understanding of them.
by Brendan Enrick
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Views (Total / Last 10 Days): 8695/ 212

Introduction

Anyone planning on writing code in C# should understand the data types available. Before diving into this, however, it is important to understand value types and reference types. This article is designed to give you a quick understanding of these. This article is not meant for people who already understand the difference between these two categories of data types. Knowing this information will give you a much better understanding of how data is stored and how to correctly interact with this data in C#. As you read on, I explain the difference between these two classifications of data types, and I explain how these differences impact you as a C# developer.


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User Comments

Title: What to Know About Value Types and Reference Types in C#   
Name: DombaX
Date: 12/19/2008 9:50:34 AM
Comment:
Excellent.. Tx...
Title: ggf   
Name: jagan nagabilli
Date: 11/28/2008 12:13:48 AM
Comment:
excellent article.....its really helps us alot..thanz author
Title: RE: Reference Assignment   
Name: Brendan Enrick
Date: 11/13/2008 10:44:30 AM
Comment:
@Horus Thanks Horus, hmm I can't believe I forgot to mention the immutability of strings. Thanks for mentioning it.
Title: Reference Assignment   
Name: Horus
Date: 11/13/2008 10:15:44 AM
Comment:
Good articel. You have to be careful with your example in the chapter 'Reference Assignment' thought. The assignment in the example works exact the way it is illustrated, but the text after the figure is only true for reference types that aren't strings. Strings are implemented as immutable and will automatically created a new instance if they are changed. So a change of 'myName' would create an independent instance with 'myName' pointing to it and authorName would keep its pointer to the old instance and so its value would remain unchanged.
Title: Value Types & Reference types   
Name: Vishal Khot
Date: 10/14/2008 4:54:15 AM
Comment:
great yaar
i am really happy by the fact that there are people who has the
tremendous capacity like you to explain the matter
it was very good & thorough explaination
great man
keep doing this
Title: Thanxx Brother   
Name: Muhammad Atif Javed
Date: 9/25/2008 2:37:18 AM
Comment:
You'r posted article is very very nice. I learned a lot from this article. This article is written in very easy words with easy to understand examples and this this will clear my concepts about value types and reference types.
Title: very helpful   
Name: Sivakumar
Date: 9/10/2008 2:55:16 AM
Comment:
Very very helpful
Good for every one.....
Title: Very very helpful   
Name: Poornima
Date: 9/5/2008 2:04:04 PM
Comment:
It is a fantastic article written in very simple language which makes it easy for beginners like me to understand.I understood everything explained in the article and Now i think I can make some sense out of the big fat C# books which I was trying to read in the first place.After struggling through complicated articles and ebooks this was like a breath of fresh air.Thanks a ton
Title: A Good Article for Beginners.   
Name: Ahsan
Date: 7/9/2008 1:19:11 AM
Comment:
It is really a very nice article for the beginners to get very Good Concept on Value Type and Reference Type.

Thanks for providing such a clear explanation.
Title: Very informative   
Name: Prince
Date: 7/9/2008 1:03:24 AM
Comment:
It was really informative. All concepts are well described except nullable which i couldn't make out :) Thanks for sharing this.
Title: Good Article   
Name: suchi banerjee
Date: 7/9/2008 12:37:57 AM
Comment:
It is a very good article. Probably you could have added a little more i.e. Cloning.
Title: RE: Good Article   
Name: Brendan
Date: 7/8/2008 8:57:35 AM
Comment:
@Ravi Chougule

Thanks, I was trying to keep it simple and easy enough for beginners to understand. I am quite happy to hear that it is also valuable for you.
Title: Good Article   
Name: Ravi Chougule
Date: 7/8/2008 5:59:37 AM
Comment:
This is really good atrticle for all...not just beginners.
Thank you

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