passing objects in a collection as ref

[jeff]

I have a collection of objects, call them MyObject, that I
store in a Hashtable , myHashTable(with dates as keys for
instance). These are VERY large objects and I have
functions that take them as a 'ref' argument. Now I don't
need to change any of the data in them -- I simply pass
them by ref so that I don't have to make a copy. I have
just discovered that you can't pass properties as 'ref'
arguments because they are read only. So I can't pass
((MyObject) myHashTable[myDate]) as a ref argument to the
function.

How can I maintain a collection of parameterized objects
(by a date or string) that can be passed as a ref argument
to a function.

Thanks,

Jeff.

[jeff]

Thanks Jon!

That was very clear. I have been coding in C# for about a
month now and the book I have been using never made that
clear. I thought that since you had to explicitly use
the 'ref' that by default objects (of classes) were
always copied otherwise -- and wasted a lot of time
trying to work around the problem. Now I don't need to
change anything, just delete all the 'ref's in my code!

Cheers,

Jeff.

-----Original Message-----
jeff <j.*******@comcase.net> wrote:

I have a collection of objects, call them MyObject, that I store in a Hashtable , myHashTable(with dates as keys for instance). These are VERY large objects and I have
functions that take them as a 'ref' argument.
Are you sure you actually need to? When you say they are

very largeobjects, are they value types? If so, do they really *need* to be?
If you're dealing with reference types, I don't think you've got theproblem you think you have - see
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet/csharp/parameters.html
for more information.

--
Jon Skeet - <sk***@pobox.com>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet/
If replying to the group, please do not mail me too
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