11. Types

11. Types
The types of the C# language are divided into two main categories: Value
types and reference types.
type:
value-type
reference-type
A third category of types, pointers, is available only in unsafe code. This
is discussed further in §25.2.
Value types differ from reference types in that variables of the value
types directly contain their data,
whereas variables of the reference types store references to their data,
the latter being known as objects.
With reference types, it is possible for two variables to reference the
same object, and thus possible for
operations on one variable to affect the object referenced by the other
variable. With value types, the
variables each have their own copy of the data, and it is not possible for
operations on one to affect the other.
C#.s type system is unified such that a value of any type can be treated as
an object. Every type in C#
directly or indirectly derives from the object class type, and object is
the ultimate base class of all types.
Values of reference types are treated as objects simply by viewing the
values as type object. Values of
value types are treated as objects by performing boxing and unboxing
operations (§11.3).