Programming in the .NET Environment

Value Types

Value types represent types that are known as simple or primitive types in many languages. They include types such as int and float in C++ and Java. Value types are often allocated on the stack, which means that they can be local variables, parameters, or return values from functions. By default, they are passed by value. Unlike in some programming languages, CLR value types are not limited to built-in data types; developers may define their own value types if necessary.

Built-in Value Types

Table 2.1 lists the CLR's built-in value types. In the table, the “CIL Name” column gives the type's name as used in Common Intermediate Language (CIL), which could best be described as the assembly language for the CLR. CIL is described in more ...