Where are ref types that are members of value types stored?

[Sathyaish]

Structs are value types, strings are ref types. If you have something
like this:

struct foo
{

System.String str;
}

foo TheDayToday;

then, where's

TheDayToday.str

going to be stored?

(a) The string is going to be stored on the stack;
(b) The struct is going to be stored on the stack with a 32-bit
System.IntPtr/System.UInt32 also copied on the stack holding the
address/reference to the actual string allocated on the heap.

 

[Jon Shemitz]

Structs are value types, strings are ref types. If you have something

like this:

struct foo
{

System.String str;
}

foo TheDayToday;

then, where's

TheDayToday.str

going to be stored?

(a) The string is going to be stored on the stack;
(b) The struct is going to be stored on the stack with a 32-bit
System.IntPtr/System.UInt32 also copied on the stack holding the
address/reference to the actual string allocated on the heap.

(b) is the closest. The struct lives on the stack, and contains a
String reference, which will be 32-bit on a 32-bit system, and 64-bit
on a 64-bit system. The difference between "a 32-bit
System.IntPtr/System.UInt32" and "a String reference" is that the
system knows that "a String reference" points to a string, and will
update if the string is moved in GC.

 

[Sathyaish]

Thank you.