Boxing and Unboxing (C# Programming Guide)
Boxing is the process of converting a value type to the type object or to any interface type implemented by this value type. When the common language runtime (CLR) boxes a value type, it wraps the value inside a System.Object instance and stores it on the managed heap. Unboxing extracts the value type from the object. Boxing is implicit; unboxing is explicit. The concept of boxing and unboxing underlies the C# unified view of the type system in which a value of any type can be treated as an object.
In the following example, the integer variable i is boxed and assigned to object o.
int i = 123;
// The following line boxes i.
object o = i;
The object o can then be unboxed and assigned to integer variable i:
o = 123;
i = (int)o; // unboxing
The following examples illustrate how boxing is used in C#.
// String.Concat example.
// String.Concat has many versions. Rest the mouse pointer on
// Concat in the following statement to verify that the version
// that is used here takes three object arguments. Both 42 and
// true must be boxed.
Console.WriteLine(String.Concat("Answer", 42, true));
// List example.
// Create a list of objects to hold a heterogeneous collection
// of elements.
List<object> mixedList = new List<object>();
// Add a string element to the list.
mixedList.Add("First Group:");
// Add some integers to the list.
for (int j = 1; j < 5; j++)
{
// Rest the mouse pointer over j to verify that you are adding
// an int to a list of objects. Each element j is boxed when
// you add j to mixedList.
mixedList.Add(j);
}
// Add another string and more integers.
mixedList.Add("Second Group:");
for (int j = 5; j < 10; j++)
{
mixedList.Add(j);
}
// Display the elements in the list. Declare the loop variable by
// using var, so that the compiler assigns its type.
foreach (var item in mixedList)
{
// Rest the mouse pointer over item to verify that the elements
// of mixedList are objects.
Console.WriteLine(item);
}
// The following loop sums the squares of the first group of boxed
// integers in mixedList. The list elements are objects, and cannot
// be multiplied or added to the sum until they are unboxed. The
// unboxing must be done explicitly.
var sum = 0;
for (var j = 1; j < 5; j++)
{
// The following statement causes a compiler error: Operator
// '*' cannot be applied to operands of type 'object' and
// 'object'.
//sum += mixedList[j] * mixedList[j]);
// After the list elements are unboxed, the computation does
// not cause a compiler error.
sum += (int)mixedList[j] * (int)mixedList[j];
}
// The sum displayed is 30, the sum of 1 + 4 + 9 + 16.
Console.WriteLine("Sum: " + sum);
// Output:
// Answer42True
// First Group:
// 1
// 2
// 3
// 4
// Second Group:
// 5
// 6
// 7
// 8
// 9
// Sum: 30
Performance
In relation to simple assignments, boxing and unboxing are computationally expensive processes. When a value type is boxed, a new object must be allocated and constructed. To a lesser degree, the cast required for unboxing is also expensive computationally. For more information, see Performance.
Boxing
Boxing is used to store value types in the garbage-collected heap. Boxing is an implicit conversion of a value type to the type object or to any interface type implemented by this value type. Boxing a value type allocates an object instance on the heap and copies the value into the new object.
Consider the following declaration of a value-type variable:
int i = 123;
The following statement implicitly applies the boxing operation on the variable i:
// Boxing copies the value of i into object o.
object o = i;
The result of this statement is creating an object reference o, on the stack, that references a value of the type int, on the heap. This value is a copy of the value-type value assigned to the variable i. The difference between the two variables, i and o, is illustrated in the following image of boxing conversion:
It is also possible to perform the boxing explicitly as in the following example, but explicit boxing is never required:
int i = 123;
object o = (object)i; // explicit boxing
Description
This example converts an integer variable i to an object o by using boxing. Then, the value stored in the variable i is changed from 123 to 456. The example shows that the original value type and the boxed object use separate memory locations, and therefore can store different values.
Example
class TestBoxing
{
static void Main()
{
int i = 123;
// Boxing copies the value of i into object o.
object o = i;
// Change the value of i.
i = 456;
// The change in i doesn't affect the value stored in o.
System.Console.WriteLine("The value-type value = {0}", i);
System.Console.WriteLine("The object-type value = {0}", o);
}
}
/* Output:
The value-type value = 456
The object-type value = 123
*/
Unboxing
Unboxing is an explicit conversion from the type object to a value type or from an interface type to a value type that implements the interface. An unboxing operation consists of:
Checking the object instance to make sure that it is a boxed value of the given value type.
Copying the value from the instance into the value-type variable.
The following statements demonstrate both boxing and unboxing operations:
int i = 123; // a value type
object o = i; // boxing
int j = (int)o; // unboxing
The following figure demonstrates the result of the previous statements:
For the unboxing of value types to succeed at run time, the item being unboxed must be a reference to an object that was previously created by boxing an instance of that value type. Attempting to unbox null causes a NullReferenceException. Attempting to unbox a reference to an incompatible value type causes an InvalidCastException.
Example
The following example demonstrates a case of invalid unboxing and the resulting InvalidCastException. Using try and catch, an error message is displayed when the error occurs.
class TestUnboxing
{
static void Main()
{
int i = 123;
object o = i; // implicit boxing
try
{
int j = (short)o; // attempt to unbox
System.Console.WriteLine("Unboxing OK.");
}
catch (System.InvalidCastException e)
{
System.Console.WriteLine("{0} Error: Incorrect unboxing.", e.Message);
}
}
}
This program outputs:
Specified cast is not valid. Error: Incorrect unboxing.
If you change the statement:
int j = (short) o;
to:
int j = (int) o;
the conversion will be performed, and you will get the output:
Unboxing OK.
C# language specification
For more information, see the C# Language Specification. The language specification is the definitive source for C# syntax and usage.