Learn
Reference Fundamentals
Review
You made it! References aren’t always easy, but learning how to use them unlocks a whole new set of superpowers in C#.
In this lesson you learned that:
- Classes and interfaces are reference types. A variable of this type holds a reference to the data, not the data itself. This is different from value types like
int
andbool
- The equality operator (
==
) uses a referential comparison for reference types and a value comparison for value types - Multiple references can be created for a single object
- A reference and its corresponding object do not have to be the same type. For example, we can refer to a subclass object by an inherited superclass or implemented interface reference
- The functionality available to an object reference is determined by the reference’s type, not the object’s type
- Polymorphism is the ability in programming to present the same interface for differing data types
- Referencing an object by an inherited type or implemented interface is called upcasting. It can be done implicitly
- Referencing an object by a derived class is called downcasting, which must be made explicit by adding the type name in parentheses. It may cause an
InvalidCastException
error when the code is run - To signify that a reference is “empty” or refers to no object, we set it equal to
null
- If a reference is not set to any value it is unassigned and cannot perform any operations
Instructions
In Program.cs, there are two lines that are commented out:
f.Define();
bdiss3.Define();
Before you move on, make sure you can explain why each of them cause an error.