CLR via C# 3rd - 04 - Type Fundamentals

1. System.Object

 

     The runtime requires every type to ultimately be derived from the System.Object type.

 

     Because all types are ultimately derived from System.Object, you are guaranteed that every object of every type has a minimum set of methods. Specifically, the System.Object class offers the public instance methods listed in below.

 

     Equals

     GetHashCode

     ToString

     GetType

 

     In addition, types that derive from System.Object have access to the protected methods listed in below.

 

     MemberwiseClone

     Finalize

 

     The CLR requires all objects to be created using the new operator.

  

2. new

 

     Here’s what the new operator does:

 

     1. It calculates the number of bytes required by all instance fields defined in the type and all of its base types up to and including System.Object (which defines no instance fields of its own). Every object on the heap requires some additional members—called the type object pointer and the sync block index—used by the CLR to manage the object. The bytes for these additional members are added to the size of the object.

 

     2. It allocates memory for the object by allocating the number of bytes required for the specified type from the managed heap; all of these bytes are then set to zero (0). 

 

     3. It initializes the object’s type object pointer and sync block index members. 

 

     4. The type’s instance constructor is called, passing it any arguments (the string "ConstructorParam1" in the preceding example) specified in the call to new. Most compilers automatically emit code in a constructor to call a base class’s constructor. Each constructor is responsible for initializing the instance fields defined by the type whose constructor is being called. Eventually,  System.Object’s constructor is called, and this constructor method does nothing but return. You can verify this by using ILDasm.exe to load MSCorLib.dll and examine System.Object’s constructor method.

 

3. Casting Between Types

 

     One of the most important features of the CLR is type safety. At runtime, the CLR always knows what type an object is. You can always discover an object’s exact type by calling the GetType method. Because this method is nonvirtual, it is impossible for a type to spoof another type.

 

     The CLR allows you to cast an object to its type or to any of its base types.

 

     C# doesn’t require any special syntax to cast an object to any of its base types, because casts to base types are considered safe implicit conversions. However, C# does require the  developer to explicitly cast an object to any of its derived types since such a cast could fail at runtime.

     

     System.InvalidCastException

 

4. Castring with the C# as and is Operators

 

     The is operator checks whether an object is compatible with a given type, and the result of the evaluation is a Boolean: true or false. The is operator will never throw an exception.

 

     The is operator is typically used as follows:

 

if (o is Employee) {

Employee e = (Employee) o;

// Use e within the remainder of the 'if' statement.

}

 

     The CLR’s type checking improves security, but it certainly comes at a performance cost, because the CLR must determine the actual type of the object referred to by the variable (o), and then the CLR must walk the inheritance hierarchy, checking each base type against the specified type (Employee). Because this programming paradigm is quite common, C# offers a way to simplify this code and improve its performance by providing an as operator: 

 

Employee e = o as Employee;

if (e != null) {

// Use e within the 'if' statement.

}

 

     Notice that the as operator causes the CLR to verify an object’s type just once. The as operator works just as casting does except that the as operator will never throw an exception. Instead, if the object can’t be cast, the result is null.

 

5. namespaces and assemblies

 

     using namespace;

 

     Be aware that a namespace and an assembly (the file that implements a type) aren’t necessarily related. In particular, the various types belonging to a single namespace might be implemented in multiple assemblies.

 

6. How things relate at Runtime

 

     Stack space is used for passing arguments to a method and for local variables defined within a method.

 

     All but the simplest of methods contain some prologue code, which initializes a method before it can start doing its work. These methods also contain epilogue code, which cleans up a method after it has performed its work so that it can return to its caller.

 

     When a method is called, the arguments will be pushed on the stack firstly,  then the address indicating where the called method should return to in the calling method is pushed on the stack.

 

     The Progress:

     

     (1) As the just-in-time (JIT) compiler converts method's Intermediate Language (IL) code into native CPU instructions, it notices all of the types that are referred to inside the method. At this time, the CLR ensures that the assemblies that define these types are loaded. Then, using the assembly’s metadata, the CLR extracts information about these types and creates some data structures to represent the types themselves.

 

     (2) All objects on the heap contain two overhead members: the type object pointer and the sync block index.

 

     (3) When you define a type, you can define static data fields within it. The bytes that back these static data fields are allocated within the type objects themselves. Finally, inside each type object is a method table with one entry per method defined within the type.

 

     (4) Whenever a new object is created on the heap, the CLR automatically initializes the internal type object pointer member to refer to the object’s corresponding type object.

 

     (5) Furthermore, the CLR initializes the sync block index and sets all of the object’s instance fields to null or 0 (zero) prior to calling the type’s constructor, a method that will likely modify some of the instance data fields. 

 

     (6) When calling a static method, the JIT compiler locates the type object that corresponds to the type that defines the static method. Then, the JIT compiler locates the entry in the type object’s method table that refers to the method being called, JITs the method (if necessary), and calls the JITted code.

 

     (7) When calling a nonvirtual instance method, the JIT compiler locates the type object that corresponds to the type of the variable being used to make the call. JIT compiler walks down the class hierarchy toward Object looking for this method. It can do this because each type object has a field in it that refers to its base type. Then, the JIT compiler locates the entry in the type object’s method table that refers to the method being called, JITs the method (if necessary), and then calls the JITted code.

 

     (8) When calling a virtual instance method, the JIT compiler produces some additional code in the method, which will be executed each time the method is invoked. This code will first look in the variable being used to make the call and then follow the address to the calling object. Then, the code will examine the object’s internal type object pointer member; this member refers to the actual type of the object. The code then locates the entry in the type object’s method table that refers to the method being called, JITs the method (if necessary), and calls the JITted code.

 

     (9) Type objects are actually objects themselves, so they all contail type object pointer. When the CLR creates type objects, the CLR must initialize these members. 

 

     (10) When the CLR starts running in a process, it immediately creates a special type object for the System.Type type (defined in MSCorLib.dll).

 

     (11) System.Type type object is an object itself and therefore also has a type object pointer member in it, and it is logical to ask what this member refers to. It refers to itself because the System.Type type object is itself an “instance” of a type object.

 

     (12) By the way, System.Object’s GetType method simply returns the address stored in the specified object’s type object pointer member. In other words, the GetType method returns a pointer to an object’s type object, and this is how you can determine the true type of any object in the system (including type objects).