#276 – Passing a struct by Reference

You can pass a struct by reference using the ref or out parameter modifiers.  Use ref when you want a method to read and write to the struct.  Use out for a struct that is meant to be an output parameter.

Assuming that you’ve defined the following struct:

    public struct MovieInfo
    {
        public string Title;
        public int Year;
        public string Director;
    }

You might pass an instance of MovieInfo by reference like this:

        public static void DisplayThenUpper(ref MovieInfo minfo)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("{0} ({1}), {2}", minfo.Title, minfo.Year, minfo.Director);

            minfo.Title = minfo.Title.ToUpper();
            minfo.Director = minfo.Director.ToUpper();
        }

After we call the method, the contents of the struct have been modified.

            MovieInfo minf = new MovieInfo();
            minf.Title = "Citizen Kane";
            minf.Year = 1941;
            minf.Director = "Orson Welles";

            Movie.DisplayThenUpper(ref minf);

            Console.WriteLine("{0}, {1}", minf.Title, minf.Director);

Output after the program has finished: