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

I made a small benchmark with BenchmarkDotNet to get a better understanding of "struct" benefit in numbers. I'm testing looping through array (or list) of structs (or classes). Creating those arrays or lists is out of the benchmark's scope - it is clear that "class" is more heavy will utilize more memory, and will involve GC.

So the conclusion is: be careful with LINQ and hidden structs boxing/unboxing and using structs for microoptimizations strictly stay with arrays.

P.S. Another benchmark about passing struct/class through call stack is there https://stackoverflow.com/a/47864451/506147

BenchmarkDotNet=v0.10.8, OS=Windows 10 Redstone 2 (10.0.15063)
Processor=Intel Core i5-2500K CPU 3.30GHz (Sandy Bridge), ProcessorCount=4
Frequency=3233542 Hz, Resolution=309.2584 ns, Timer=TSC
  [Host] : Clr 4.0.30319.42000, 64bit RyuJIT-v4.7.2101.1
  Clr    : Clr 4.0.30319.42000, 64bit RyuJIT-v4.7.2101.1
  Core   : .NET Core 4.6.25211.01, 64bit RyuJIT


          Method |  Job | Runtime |      Mean |     Error |    StdDev |       Min |       Max |    Median | Rank |  Gen 0 | Allocated |
---------------- |----- |-------- |----------:|----------:|----------:|----------:|----------:|----------:|-----:|-------:|----------:|
   TestListClass |  Clr |     Clr |  5.599 us | 0.0408 us | 0.0382 us |  5.561 us |  5.689 us |  5.583 us |    3 |      - |       0 B |
  TestArrayClass |  Clr |     Clr |  2.024 us | 0.0102 us | 0.0096 us |  2.011 us |  2.043 us |  2.022 us |    2 |      - |       0 B |
  TestListStruct |  Clr |     Clr |  8.427 us | 0.1983 us | 0.2204 us |  8.101 us |  9.007 us |  8.374 us |    5 |      - |       0 B |
 TestArrayStruct |  Clr |     Clr |  1.539 us | 0.0295 us | 0.0276 us |  1.502 us |  1.577 us |  1.537 us |    1 |      - |       0 B |
   TestLinqClass |  Clr |     Clr | 13.117 us | 0.1007 us | 0.0892 us | 13.007 us | 13.301 us | 13.089 us |    7 | 0.0153 |      80 B |
  TestLinqStruct |  Clr |     Clr | 28.676 us | 0.1837 us | 0.1534 us | 28.441 us | 28.957 us | 28.660 us |    9 |      - |      96 B |
   TestListClass | Core |    Core |  5.747 us | 0.1147 us | 0.1275 us |  5.567 us |  5.945 us |  5.756 us |    4 |      - |       0 B |
  TestArrayClass | Core |    Core |  2.023 us | 0.0299 us | 0.0279 us |  1.990 us |  2.069 us |  2.013 us |    2 |      - |       0 B |
  TestListStruct | Core |    Core |  8.753 us | 0.1659 us | 0.1910 us |  8.498 us |  9.110 us |  8.670 us |    6 |      - |       0 B |
 TestArrayStruct | Core |    Core |  1.552 us | 0.0307 us | 0.0377 us |  1.496 us |  1.618 us |  1.552 us |    1 |      - |       0 B |
   TestLinqClass | Core |    Core | 14.286 us | 0.2430 us | 0.2273 us | 13.956 us | 14.678 us | 14.313 us |    8 | 0.0153 |      72 B |
  TestLinqStruct | Core |    Core | 30.121 us | 0.5941 us | 0.5835 us | 28.928 us | 30.909 us | 30.153 us |   10 |      - |      88 B |

Code:

[RankColumn, MinColumn, MaxColumn, StdDevColumn, MedianColumn]
    [ClrJob, CoreJob]
    [HtmlExporter, MarkdownExporter]
    [MemoryDiagnoser]
    public class BenchmarkRef
    {
        public class C1
        {
            public string Text1;
            public string Text2;
            public string Text3;
        }

        public struct S1
        {
            public string Text1;
            public string Text2;
            public string Text3;
        }

        List<C1> testListClass = new List<C1>();
        List<S1> testListStruct = new List<S1>();
        C1[] testArrayClass;
        S1[] testArrayStruct;
        public BenchmarkRef()
        {
            for(int i=0;i<1000;i++)
            {
                testListClass.Add(new C1  { Text1= i.ToString(), Text2=null, Text3= i.ToString() });
                testListStruct.Add(new S1 { Text1 = i.ToString(), Text2 = null, Text3 = i.ToString() });
            }
            testArrayClass = testListClass.ToArray();
            testArrayStruct = testListStruct.ToArray();
        }

        [Benchmark]
        public int TestListClass()
        {
            var x = 0;
            foreach(var i in testListClass)
            {
                x += i.Text1.Length + i.Text3.Length;
            }
            return x;
        }

        [Benchmark]
        public int TestArrayClass()
        {
            var x = 0;
            foreach (var i in testArrayClass)
            {
                x += i.Text1.Length + i.Text3.Length;
            }
            return x;
        }

        [Benchmark]
        public int TestListStruct()
        {
            var x = 0;
            foreach (var i in testListStruct)
            {
                x += i.Text1.Length + i.Text3.Length;
            }
            return x;
        }

        [Benchmark]
        public int TestArrayStruct()
        {
            var x = 0;
            foreach (var i in testArrayStruct)
            {
                x += i.Text1.Length + i.Text3.Length;
            }
            return x;
        }

        [Benchmark]
        public int TestLinqClass()
        {
            var x = testListClass.Select(i=> i.Text1.Length + i.Text3.Length).Sum();
            return x;
        }

        [Benchmark]
        public int TestLinqStruct()
        {
            var x = testListStruct.Select(i => i.Text1.Length + i.Text3.Length).Sum();
            return x;
        }
    }

Answer 2

With the exception of the valuetypes that are used directly by the runtime and various others for PInvoke purposes, you should only use valuetypes in 2 scenarios.

1. When you need copy semantics.
2. When you need automatic initialization, normally in arrays of these types.

Answer 3

My rule is

1, Always use class;

2, If there is any performance issue, I try to change some class to struct depending on the rules which @IAbstract mentioned, and then do a test to see if these changes can improve performance.

Answer 4

I do not agree with the rules given in the original post. Here are my rules:

1) You use structs for performance when stored in arrays. (see also When are structs the answer?)

2) You need them in code passing structured data to/from C/C++

3) Do not use structs unless you need them:

• They behave different from "normal objects" (reference types) under assignment and when passing as arguments, which can lead to unexpected behavior; this is particularly dangerous if the person looking at the code does not know they are dealing with a struct.
• They cannot be inherited.
• Passing structs as arguments is more expensive than classes.

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

I rarely use a struct for things. But that's just me. It depends whether I need the object to be nullable or not.

As stated in other answers, I use classes for real-world objects. I also have the mindset of structs are used for storing small amounts of data.