C#•2y ago

with or without ref

so i learned that in c#(or most oop languages) when you create a method that takes an object as a parameter, and you call said method and pass an object of the same type as an argument, it passes the reference to the caller. so if you were to alter any properties of the object parameter in the method, it affects the object that was used as a parameter something like

void ChangeName(Person p) {
    p.Name = "Alice";
}

Person person = new Person();
person.Name = "Bob";
ChangeName(person);

void ChangeName(Person p) {
    p.Name = "Alice";
}

Person person = new Person();
person.Name = "Bob";
ChangeName(person);

i assume that after the last statement person's Name property is now "Alice". i was reading up the docs and it mentioned you would use ref before an object parameter if you wanted to alter the original object argument and I'm confused cus isnt this how objects already worked like..?

6 Replies

x0rld 👻 🎃•2y ago

you pass the reference of that object ref would be for a valuetype I think 🤔

MoodsOP•2y ago

yeahhh i know how it works for value types but the docs covered reference types too and i got all confused ok reading it again i believe i understand it now. with ref it's possible to make the original object point to a new memory

Aaron•2y ago

ref allows you to reassign, when talking about reference types

MoodsOP•2y ago

yep

Aaron•2y ago

dunno why I said out

MODiX•2y ago

Windows10CE#8553

REPL Result: Success

void Assign(ref string s) => s = "abc";

string s = null;
Assign(ref s);
s

void Assign(ref string s) => s = "abc";

string s = null;
Assign(ref s);
s

Result: string

abc

abc

Compile: 458.034ms | Execution: 36.602ms | React with ❌ to remove this embed.

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Programming

with or without ref