Episode 2 – Boxing and Unboxing in .NET

This episode is all about boxing and unboxing. We discuss memory management, the pros (yes, there are a few!) and cons of boxing/unboxing, some of the weird side effects and how to you can avoid it with generics and ToString methods. Download the episode on iTunes or Stitcher and make sure to drop your feedback on iTunes. Thanks for listening! Show Notes Duration: ~33m Memory Management in .Net 0:00 - 10:39 Grand Theft Example - Shipper doesn't care what's in the box! Value Types vs Reference Types Stack vs Heap Nullable Types are value types Boxing and Unboxing Msdn vs CLR via C# Boxing and Unboxing: 7 Deadly Sins 10:39 - 15:39 Boxed values take up more memory. Boxed values require an additional read Short-lived values clog the heap Boxing and unboxing operations takes time/cpu Casting Implicit Boxing (It's sneaky!) They’re (almost) unnecessary! Related Post Boxing and unboxing is big, slow, ugly, sneaky, and almost completely unnecessary. Take a deeper look at 7 of the reasons why programmers beat up on boxing: Boxing and Unboxing in C#: 7 Deadly Sins Unintended consequences with interfaces 15:39 - 17:50 Interfaces are reference types Intefaces with methods that take Objects must box ValueTypes IComparable.CompareTo(object obj) example Avoiding boxing 17:50 - 24:24 Generic Interfaces Detecting boxing/unboxing with ILDasm and ILSpy ToString() Trick   Related Posts Steps to Understanding Boxing and Unboxing We’ve discovered a little trick that lets you bypass a boxing/unboxing operation in some situations by calling ToString: Avoiding boxing in String and Console methods In Defense of Boxing/Unboxing 24:24 - 27:49 Pre .NET 2.0 code (ArrayList and HashTable) 3rd party libraries Dynamics and Reflection Any method that takes an object Tips & Tricks 27:49 - 33:38 Assign labels to your breakpoints Visual Studio Multi Display dotPeek - Free .NET decompiler Thanks for checking out the podcast. We’d love to hear your honest feedback in your iTunes review or at comments@codingblocks.net.

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