Reference Types

Abstract

Reference types are classes and structs decorated with the ref qualifier. Instances of Reference Types are always allocated on the heap. Here comes the interesting part. This heap is not the same heap where your native types are allocated—the unmanaged heap. This is a different area called the managed heap. The native type or code has no idea or direct reach to the managed heap. So then, how do we allocate on the managed heap? Is it by using the new keyword? If so, how does the new keyword know where to allocate then? To get around, there is a newer keyword called gcnew.