Question

string a = "a";

string b = a;

string a = "c";

Why does string b still have the value "a" and not "c"?

As string is an object and not a stack value type, what’s with this behaviour?

Thanks

Answer 1

Let me start by saying that your choices for variables and data are poor. It makes it very difficult for someone to say “the string a in your example…” because “a” could be the content of the string, or the variable containing the reference. (And it is easily confused with the indefinite article ‘a’.)

Also, your code doesn’t compile because it declares variable “a” twice. You are likely to get better answers if you ask questions in a way that makes them amenable to being answered clearly.

So let’s start over.

We have two variables and two string literals.

string x = "hello";
string y = x;
x = "goodbye";

Now the question is “why does y equal ‘hello’ and not ‘goodbye'”?

Let’s go back to basics. What is a variable? A variable is a storage location.

What is a value of the string type? A value of the string type is a reference to string data..

What is a variable of type string? Put it together. A variable of type string is a storage location which holds a reference to string data.

So, what is x? a storage location. What is its first value? a reference to the string data “hello”.

What is y? a storage location. What is its first value? a reference to the string data “hello”, same as x.

Now we change the contents of storage location x to refer to the string data “goodbye”. The contents of storage location y do not change; we didn’t set y.

Make sense?

why don’t string object refs behave like other object refs?

I deny the premise of the question. String object refs do behave like other object refs. Can you give an example of where they don’t?