object (C# Reference)

The object type is an alias for Object in the .NET Framework. In the unified type system of C#, all types, predefined and user-defined, reference types and value types, inherit directly or indirectly from Object. You can assign values of any type to variables of type object. When a variable of a value type is converted to object, it is said to be boxed. When a variable of type object is converted to a value type, it is said to be unboxed. For more information, see Boxing and Unboxing.

Example

The following sample shows how variables of type object can accept values of any data type and how variables of type object can use methods on Object from the .NET Framework.

class ObjectTest
{
   public int i = 10;
}

class MainClass2
{
   static void Main()
   {
      object a;
      a = 1;   // an example of boxing
      Console.WriteLine(a);
      Console.WriteLine(a.GetType());
      Console.WriteLine(a.ToString());

      a = new ObjectTest();
      ObjectTest classRef;
      classRef = (ObjectTest)a;
      Console.WriteLine(classRef.i);
   }
}
/* Output
    1
    System.Int32
    1
 * 10
*/

C# Language Specification

For more information, see the following sections in the C# Language Specification:

• 1 Introduction

• 4.2.2 The object type

See Also

Concepts

C# Programming Guide

Reference

C# Keywords

Reference Types (C# Reference)

Value Types (C# Reference)

Other Resources

C# Reference