CHAPTER 4 CORE C# PROGRAMMING CONSTRUCTS, PART II
Source Code The FunWithEnums project is located under the Chapter 4 subdirectory.
Understanding the Structure Type
Now that you understand the role of enumeration types, let’s examine the use of .NET structures (or
simply structs). Structure types are well suited for modeling mathematical, geometrical, and other
“atomic” entities in your application. A structure (like an enumeration) is a user-defined type; however,
structures are not simply a collection of name/value pairs. Rather, structures are types that can contain
any number of data fields and members that operate on these fields.
Note If you have a background in OOP, you can think of a structure as a “lightweight class type,” given that
structures provide a way to define a type that supports encapsulation, but cannot be used to build a family of
related types. When you need to build a family of related types through inheritance, you will need to make use of
class types.
On the surface, the process of defining and using structures is very simple, but as they say, the devil
is in the details. To begin understanding the basics of structure types, create a new project named
FunWithStructures. In C#, structures are defined using the struct keyword. Define a new structure
na