[Enhancement][record][class][struct] Include a Comparison Table in the Type System Overview for clearer Side-by-Side comprehensive Comparion

[DevTKSS]

Type of issue

Missing information

Description

I am looking up the specific differences between record, class, struct and all of their possible combinations

Records are types that use value-based equality. You can define records as reference types or value types. Two variables of a record type are equal if the record type definitions are identical, and if for every field, the values in both records are equal. Two variables of a class type are equal if the objects referred to are the same class type and the variables refer to the same object. Value-based equality implies other capabilities you probably want in record types. The compiler generates many of those members when you declare a record instead of a class. The compiler generates those same methods for record struct types.

Possible layout:

Type	Comparison as...	Equality by...	Immutability	Inheritance	.ToString() Output
record	Referencetype	Value	✅	only from other records	MyRecord { SomeProperty = "Hello World" , SomeOtherProperty = "Nice to see you!" }
record struct	Value Type	Value	✅ (?)	❌ (?)	?
record class	Reference Type	?	?	???	??
class	Reference Type	Reference	❌	✅	MyClassType (no Property values)

(to be continued if you know more possible combinations 👍 )
(understand all columns as default "without override"!)

additional to the sense making Overview Table of differences across all the combinations (feel free to create a new docs enhancement request if you need to from this 👍 )

---

Improvable Tutorial parts for records

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/tutorials/records

• The first sentence in the Tutorial speaks about value-based equality, while the next sentence lets me know that You can define records as reference types or value types.

  Records are types that use value-based equality. You can define records as reference types or value types.

• But only the linked Build-in Types Reference for Records (C# Reference) states:

  The record modifier provides built-in functionality for encapsulating data. The record class and record syntax define reference types. The record struct syntax defines a value type.

• To me the unclear or optimizeable parts in the Tutorial Article, which should assume the Reader is new to Records and might even still be learning C#'s basics, this Tutorial misses some important base-laying information to then have the suitable and expectable knowledge instead of making assumtions about his knowledge state, which the Consumer might not be aware/told of::

  • eventual Prerequired/Expected Knowledge
  • What are the defaults for each of the listed variants we are told about in this section (!) up from the start of the Tutorial *(Start each from the simple record definition, do not group them!) use the sampled table for the Overview to get an idea what would be interesting to know)

• Code Samples: The used Code Samples in this tutorial could benefit brevity by some common code styling:

  • Add empty new lines and
  • Use Line-Breaks for Code Sample using Linq Extensions and the Non destructivewith sample

• At the End of the Tutorial, you included some links, but beneath the net9.0 proposal, we seem to miss a link to the latest (net10 like for the last link for record struct?) .NET version maybe?

  You can learn more about records in the C# language reference article for the record type and the proposed record type specification and record struct specification.

  You can learn more about records in the [C# language reference article for the record type](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/builtin-types/record) and the [proposed record type specification](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/proposals/csharp-9.0/records) and [record struct specification](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/proposals/csharp-10.0/record-structs).
  

Page URL

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/fundamentals/types/

Content source URL

https://github.com/dotnet/docs/blob/main/docs/csharp/fundamentals/types/index.md

Document Version Independent Id

9aa4f01b-a5a0-3cb1-3c22-db333c0d9f11

Platform Id

30e147af-ed76-bf1c-6227-a0627346a70b

Article author

@BillWagner

Metadata

• ID: 1991c89a-9728-ea31-a999-79b3cb331372
• PlatformId: 30e147af-ed76-bf1c-6227-a0627346a70b
• Service: dotnet-csharp
• Sub-service: fundamentals

Related Issues

[BillWagner]

Thanks @DevTKSS

I'll put this in the backlog for when I next sweep through this area. There's a lot of good information here. I want to think about it before making bulk changes.