Exploring C#’s ref return to better understand it

I felt a bit fuzzy on the topic of ref returns in C#. I used it intuitively few times, but it felt I needed to fill some gaps and play with it in a little bit more structured way. This is my exploration of the topic. No particular order. No deep explanations. Just my thinking what should work and what not and trying it.

I’m gonna use this simple struct (no reason, I just started with it and then for the convenience sake added the implicit operator).

struct MyStruct { public int I; public static implicit operator MyStruct(int i) => new MyStruct() { I = i }; }

#1

class Test1 { MyStruct[] V = new MyStruct[] { 1, 2, 3, 4 }; public ref MyStruct FooBar(int index) { return ref V[index]; } }

Works. The V is allocated on the heap and hence I can return a reference to some particular element.

#2

class Test2 { public ref MyStruct FooBar(int index) { var v = new MyStruct[] { 1, 2, 3, 4 }; return ref v[index]; } }

Works. Even though the v is local variable, it’s not on stack because it’s an array.

That means this should not work…

class Test2_1 { public ref MyStruct FooBar(int index) { ref var x1 = new MyStruct(); ref var x2 = ref new MyStruct(); return ref x1; } }

And it doesn’t. The x1 and x2 fails with error CS8172: Cannot initialize a by-reference variable with a value and error CS1510: A ref or out value must be an assignable variable respectively.

What about static values…

class Test2_2 { static MyStruct i; public ref MyStruct FooBar(int index) { return ref i; } }

Works. Basically same as #1.

What if I remove the static …

class Test2_3 { MyStruct i; public ref MyStruct FooBar(int index) { return ref i; } }

Works. Because it’s a field in a class and class is a reference type.

Should fail in struct then…

struct Test2_4 { MyStruct i; public ref MyStruct FooBar(int index) { return ref i; } }

And indeed it does. It fails with error CS8170: Struct members cannot return 'this' or other instance members by reference . And also the this makes sense.

Wait a minute. But with static again, this should work…

struct Test2_5 { static MyStruct i; public ref MyStruct FooBar(int index) { return ref i; } }

Works. Even though the field is declared in a struct , it’s going to be allocated on the heap, because it’s static (on a so called High Frequency Heap).

#3

class Test3 { public ref MyStruct FooBar(MyStruct[] v, int index) { return ref v[index]; } }

Yeah, that’s like the most basic example actually. I can then call it with this code…

var local = new MyStruct(); var arr = new[] { local }; Console.WriteLine(local.I); Console.WriteLine(arr[0].I); Console.WriteLine(); var x1 = new Test3().FooBar(arr, 0); x1.I = 1; Console.WriteLine(local.I); Console.WriteLine(arr[0].I); Console.WriteLine(); ref var x2 = ref new Test3().FooBar(arr, 0); x2.I = 1; Console.WriteLine(local.I); Console.WriteLine(arr[0].I); Console.WriteLine();

…and get output:

0 0 0 0 0 1

Makes sense. I don’t care where the v came from in the FooBar . As long as it was passed to me, I can return reference back to it to the caller, because caller will have access to it for sure.

Or maybe… Can I maybe push it bit further? 😉

unsafe public ref MyStruct FooBar(MyStruct* v, int index) { return ref v[index]; }

unsafe { var local = new MyStruct(); MyStruct* arr = stackalloc[] { local }; Console.WriteLine(local.I); Console.WriteLine(arr[0].I); Console.WriteLine(); var x1 = new Test3().FooBar(arr, 0); x1.I = 1; Console.WriteLine(local.I); Console.WriteLine(arr[0].I); Console.WriteLine(); ref var x2 = ref new Test3().FooBar(arr, 0); x2.I = 1; Console.WriteLine(local.I); Console.WriteLine(arr[0].I); Console.WriteLine(); }

Yeah, works, same output. Everything is fine. 😃

Closing

This was very nice exploration. All I needed was few moments of playing with the code and exploring basics and seeing what’s allowed and what’s not – and thinking why – and building on top of that. Hope this raw brain dump is going to help you as well.