Programming in the .NET Environment

Reference Types

Reference types combine a location and a sequence of bits. The location provides identity by designating an area in memory where values can be stored and the type of values that can be stored there. A location is “type safe” in that only assignment-compatible types can be stored in it. (The section “Assignment Compatibility” gives an example of assignment compatibility.)

Because all reference types are allocated on the garbage collected heap and the garbage collector is free to move objects during execution, reference types are always accessed through a strongly typed reference rather than directly. As the garbage collector moves the object, the reference can be updated as part of the relocation process. As shown in Figure 2.2 ...