What is the difference between a reference type and value type in c#?

Question

Some guy asked me this question couple of months ago and I couldn\'t explain it in detail. What is the difference between a reference type and a value type in C#?

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Answer 1

There are many little details of the differences between value types and reference types that are stated explicitly by the standard and some of them are not easy to understand, especially for beginners.

See ECMA standard 33, Common Language Infrastructure (CLI). The CLI is also standardized by the ISO. I would provide a reference but for ECMA we must download a PDF and that link depends on the version number. ISO standards cost money.

One difference is that value types can be boxed but reference types generally cannot be. There are exceptions but they are quite technical.

Value types cannot have parameter-less instance constructors or finalizers and they cannot refer to themselves. Referring to themselves means for example that if there is a value type Node then a member of Node cannot be a Node. I think there are other requirements/limitations in the specifications but if so then they are not gathered together in one place.