The .NET Framework Type System

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C++ programmers in particular will be surprised by the changes in the basic storage types used by the .NET framework. An integer is no longer just a couple of bytes in a memory block somewhere. Of course, the data is stored in memory, but you can now treat that integer like an object, accessing methods that it exposes.

There are two distinctly different families of types. Value types, including chars, ints, and doubles to name a few, are accompanied by reference types such as arrays, interfaces, classes, and a native string type.

Because the .NET framework itself defines the types, languages such as C#, Visual Basic, and others can use them in the same way. This means that the integer used by VB is the same as the integer used by C#, and painful conversions between "real" types and types such as variants are unnecessary.

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