C# Program to Demonstrate Boxing Operations

Boxing and unboxing are fundamental concepts in C# related to the manipulation of value types and reference types.

Problem Statement

You are tasked with implementing a simple application that demonstrates the concepts of boxing and unboxing in C#.

C# Program to Demonstrate Boxing Operations

using System;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Boxing: Converting an int to an object
        int intValue = 42;
        object boxedValue = intValue;

        // Unboxing: Converting an object back to int
        int unboxedValue = (int)boxedValue;

        Console.WriteLine("Original int value: " + intValue);
        Console.WriteLine("Boxed object value: " + boxedValue);
        Console.WriteLine("Unboxed int value: " + unboxedValue);

        // Boxing with other value types
        double doubleValue = 3.14159265359;
        object boxedDouble = doubleValue;

        // Unboxing the double
        double unboxedDouble = (double)boxedDouble;

        Console.WriteLine("Original double value: " + doubleValue);
        Console.WriteLine("Boxed double value: " + boxedDouble);
        Console.WriteLine("Unboxed double value: " + unboxedDouble);

        // Demonstrating boxing with value types
        bool boolValue = true;
        object boxedBool = boolValue;

        // Unboxing the boolean
        bool unboxedBool = (bool)boxedBool;

        Console.WriteLine("Original bool value: " + boolValue);
        Console.WriteLine("Boxed bool value: " + boxedBool);
        Console.WriteLine("Unboxed bool value: " + unboxedBool);
    }
}

How it Works

Boxing:

1. Create a Value Type: In boxing, you start with a value type variable. For example, let’s consider an int variable named intValue, which holds the value 42.csharpCopy codeint intValue = 42;
2. Boxing Operation: When you want to box this int value, you assign it to a variable of a reference type, such as object. This process involves creating a new object on the heap and copying the value of the int into that object. The boxedValue variable now refers to this newly created object. At this point, boxedValue contains a reference to an object on the heap, which holds a copy of the int value 42.

Unboxing:

1. Retrieve the Boxed Object: To unbox the value, you first need a reference to the boxed object. In our example, boxedValue contains the reference to the boxed int. Assuming boxedValue still refers to the boxed int
2. Unboxing Operation: To retrieve the original int value from the boxed object, you explicitly cast the boxedValue variable back to its original value type (int in this case).csharpCopy codeint unboxedValue = (int)boxedValue; // Unboxing operation The unboxing operation checks if the boxed object is compatible with the specified target value type (int in this case). If it is, it extracts the value from the boxed object and assigns it to the unboxedValue variable.

Input/ Output