C# Error CS0523 – Struct member ‘struct2 field’ of type ‘struct1’ causes a cycle in the struct layout

C# Compiler Error

CS0523 – Struct member ‘struct2 field’ of type ‘struct1’ causes a cycle in the struct layout

Reason for the Error

You’ll get this error in your C# code when the C# compiler notices that you have a cyclic dependency or recursive references when defining multiple structs.

For example, let’s try to compile the below C# code snippet.

using System;
namespace DeveloperPublishNamespace
{
    struct Struct1
    {
        public Struct2 field;
    }

    struct Struct2
    {
        public Struct1 field;   
    }

    class Program
    {
      
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("No Error");
        }
    }
}

You’ll receive the error code CS0523 because the struct “struct1” and “struct1” is referenced recursively in both of its definition.

Error CS0523 Struct member ‘Struct1.field’ of type ‘Struct2’ causes a cycle in the struct layout DeveloperPublish C:\Users\SenthilBalu\source\repos\ConsoleApp4\ConsoleApp4\Program.cs 6 Active
Error CS0523 Struct member ‘Struct2.field’ of type ‘Struct1’ causes a cycle in the struct layout DeveloperPublish C:\Users\SenthilBalu\source\repos\ConsoleApp4\ConsoleApp4\Program.cs 11 Active

Solution

To fix this error in your C# code, you will need to remove the cyclic dependencies in the struct definition.

Note :
C# throws this error only for the structs as its a value type. If you encounter a scenario to use recursive dependencies or references, try using the reference types instead.