C# Primer: A Practical Approach

2.19. The struct Value Type

The struct mechanism allows us to introduce new value types into our application. The declaration looks exactly the same as for a class, except that we use the struct keyword—for example,

public struct matrix
{
    private double[,] m_mat;
    private int       m_row;
    private int       m_col;

    // ...
}

A value type stores its data directly within the object. A matrix object, for example, directly holds the m_row and m_col integer values, as well as the handle to the two-dimensional reference type array, m_mat.

When we initialize or assign one struct object with another, a deep copy is carried out; the two objects hold the same values but remain independent, unlike the shallow-copy semantics of a reference type. This both simplifies and ...