When should I use a struct instead of a class?
Bill Wagner has a chapter about this in his book "effective c#" (http://www.amazon.com/Effective-Specific-Ways-Improve-Your/dp/0321245660). He concludes by using the following principle:
- Is the main responsability of the type data storage?
- Is its public interface defined entirely by properties that access or modify its data members?
- Are you sure your type will never have subclasses?
- Are you sure your type will never be treated polymorphically?
If you answer 'yes' to all 4 questions: use a struct. Otherwise, use a class.
MSDN has the answer: Choosing Between Classes and Structures.
Basically, that page gives you a 4-item checklist and says to use a class unless your type meets all of the criteria.
Do not define a structure unless the type has all of the following characteristics:
- It logically represents a single value, similar to primitive types (integer, double, and so on).
- It has an instance size smaller than 16 bytes.
- It is immutable.
- It will not have to be boxed frequently.
I am surprised I have not read at any of the previous answer this, which I consider the most crucial aspect :
I use structs when I want a type with no identity. For example a 3D point:
public struct ThreeDimensionalPoint
{
public readonly int X, Y, Z;
public ThreeDimensionalPoint(int x, int y, int z)
{
this.X = x;
this.Y = y;
this.Z = z;
}
public override string ToString()
{
return "(X=" + this.X + ", Y=" + this.Y + ", Z=" + this.Z + ")";
}
public override int GetHashCode()
{
return (this.X + 2) ^ (this.Y + 2) ^ (this.Z + 2);
}
public override bool Equals(object obj)
{
if (!(obj is ThreeDimensionalPoint))
return false;
ThreeDimensionalPoint other = (ThreeDimensionalPoint)obj;
return this == other;
}
public static bool operator ==(ThreeDimensionalPoint p1, ThreeDimensionalPoint p2)
{
return p1.X == p2.X && p1.Y == p2.Y && p1.Z == p2.Z;
}
public static bool operator !=(ThreeDimensionalPoint p1, ThreeDimensionalPoint p2)
{
return !(p1 == p2);
}
}
If you have two instances of this struct you don't care if they are a single piece of data in memory or two. You just care about the value(s) they hold.