C# Basics - Tool Developer Notes Part XI

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Often you learn new things when you re-learn basics. This post is fundamentals of C#. More than statements, for, while loops let’s look on basics of program execution, memory management, basics. Below listed are my notes from Illustrated C# 2010 Book.
Tip #1 - Why .NET is a strongly typed language ?

Type assignments are very strict. You cannot assign different types. Example - You cannot assign string to an integer in C#.

string a;
int b;
b = 10;
a = b;

This would error (Compile time error). Identifying type conversion error during compile time is advantage of strongly typed language.

Tip #2 - What is Unified Type System ?

• All types are derived from System.Object
• System.Object contains class, interface, delegate, string etc
• Value Types are derived from System.ValueType
• System.ValueType inherits from System.Object
  

Tip #3 - What is Stored in Stack ? How it works?

• Stack is used for managing program execution; store certain variables, Store parameters sent for methods
• LIFO fashion (Data Deleted and Added from Top of Stack - Last In First Out)
  

Tip #4 - What is a Value Type ?

• Value Types are Stored in Stack, Use less resource (Managed in Stack itself)
• Value Types Will not cause Garbage Collection as it is stored in Stack
• Example of Value Types - int, float, long, double, decimal, struct, enum

More Reads Link

Tip #5 - What is Stored in Heap ? How it works ?

• Reference Types are stored in Heap. Garbage Collector manages heap memory
• Memory can be allocated and removed from any order (GC has its own algorithm to clear objects from Heap)
• Program can store data in Heap. GC removes data from Heap
• All Reference Type objects are stored in Heap (All the data members of the Object regardless of value type or reference type) they will be stored in Heap
• Ex- If you declare a class with data members, functions. The data members might belong to int, float data type. All the memory for them would be allocated in heap
• Example of Reference Types - Object, String, Classes, interface, delegate, array
• More Reads Link1, Link2

Tip #6 - What is output of below program ?

int i = 20;
object j = i; //(Boxing)
j = 50; //(unboxing)

Value of i will still be 20. It is stored as a value type in stack with 20 as its value. J is stored as reference type in heap with value 50 assigned for J. In C with pointers concepts we can change the value of a variable with pointers

int a = 10;
int *b;
b = &a;
*b = 20;

Now the value of a will be set to 20

Tip #8 - What is Boxing and Unboxing ?

Converting a value type to a reference type is boxing. Boxing means creating a new instance of a reference type. Reference types are always destroyed by garbage collection.

int i = 20;
object j = i; //(Boxing)

Converting a reference type to value type is unboxing

int i = 20;
int k;
object j = i;
k = (int)j; //unboxing

Happy Learning!!!