Question

I have only 2 classes:

class A 
{
   public B b = new B();    
   public bool flag {get; set;}
}

class B
{
  public void foo()
  {
   //iterates a dataTable with column "someBoolCondition"
   // I want to set A's bool to true, after the first record that has 'true' in column
   //"someBoolCondition". Thus is thought to avoid bool memebers in each class.
  }
}

My idea, wasn’t so good as bool is of value type:
I think it’s a problem because I see the line “ReferenceToA.flag = true;” is executed but later I don’t see A’s flag turns into true (stays false). Why is that?

   class A 
    {
       public bool flag {get; set;}

       public B b = new B();
       b.ReferenceToA = this;
    }

    class B
    {    
        public A ReferenceToA {get; set} 
        public void foo()
         {
           ReferenceToA.flag = true; //...
         }
    }

Is there an elegant way to do it like as for member of reference type?
Is it an overkill and should be done differently ?

Answer 1

Your pattern is actually not worse when passing bool compared to any reference type – it’s exactly the same.

Indeed the size of the reference (which is passed by value) is 32 or 64 bit. That’s also the size of bool.