Fields and Data Constants

Chapter 8

Fields and Data Constants

Fields are one of two kinds of typed and named data locations, the second kind being method local variables, which are discussed in Chapter 9, “Methods.” Fields correspond to the member variables and global variables of the C++ world. Apart from their own characteristics, fields can have additional information associated with them defining the way the fields are laid out by the loader, how they are allocated, how they are marshaled to unmanaged code, and whether they have default values. This chapter examines all aspects of member and global fields and the metadata used to describe these aspects.