When should I use a struct rather than a class in C#?

Question

When should you use struct and not class in C#? My conceptual model is that structs are used in times when the item is merely a collection of value types. A way to

Answer 1

The C# struct is a lightweight alternative to a class. It can do almost the same as a class, but it's less "expensive" to use a struct rather than a class. The reason for this is a bit technical, but to sum up, new instances of a class is placed on the heap, where newly instantiated structs are placed on the stack. Furthermore, you are not dealing with references to structs, like with classes, but instead you are working directly with the struct instance. This also means that when you pass a struct to a function, it is by value, instead of as a reference. There is more about this in the chapter about function parameters.

So, you should use structs when you wish to represent more simple data structures, and especially if you know that you will be instantiating lots of them. There are lots of examples in the .NET framework, where Microsoft has used structs instead of classes, for instance the Point, Rectangle and Color struct.