Hello,

I am reading the book and I am on page 208. One of the code is

int^ value = 99;

and it says that value of type int^ and the value it points to on the heap is initialized to 99.

But isn't 99 is of a fundamental type and thus of value class type? if so, by default shouldn't it be created in stack (Tracking Handle, page 207)? not using gcnew here, right?

The same thing was mentioned later in the page where the code is

int^ result = 0;

and it says "you first create the handle result that points to a value 0 on the heap".

So is all integer literals in handle initialization gets created in heap?

If so in page 209 (next page), first para last line, it says "the expression on the right of the assignment is a value class type and its address is stored in result". So by default it should be created in stack no? (Tracking Handle, page 207)

I apologize if this a stupid question. But please let me know...

Sa'ad

Ok I did web search and I am now referring to page 381

double pi = 3.142;

is created in stack

But

double^ two = 2.0;

is created in heap. Now in the above para, it says "when you declare a data item of a value class type, memory for it will be allocated on the stack but you can create value class objects on the heap using the gcnew operator..."

Now in

double^ two = 2.0;

gcnew is not used. But it is still created in heap. Is it because,

double^ two = 2.0;

is really equivalent to

double^ two = gcnew double(2.0);

If so, now it kind of make sense.

Help!

Saadli,

You can take my words with a grain of salt because I haven't been following the CLR section of the book, I've mostly been on the Native part.

However page 207, under the Tracking Handles topic, it says that:

• ...variables allocated on the CLR heap, which includes all CLR reference types, cannot be declared at global scope.

When I try to define a global like this:

I get this compiler error:

error C3145: 'value' : global or static variable may not have managed type 'System::Int32 ^' 1> may not declare a global or static variable, or a member of a native type that refers to objects in the gc heap

I can only imagine that the value variable is indeed a heap value, as a definition like this works fine at global scope:

That being the case, I cannot tell you what the real difference is between these definitions:

The compiler gives the same error (C3145) for each of these global definition.

Here's a link about handles that you can paste into the URL field of the VS2008 help: ms-help://MS.VSCC.v90/MS.MSDNQTR.v90.en/dv_vclang/html/70c411e6-be57-4468-a944-6ea7be89f392.htm

Hope this helps...

Hello Jabney,

Thanks for the reply.

I think an easier way for me to understand this would be to see if there is a way to print out the address kept on a handle. That way I can print out the address and guess where the heap is starting from.

Do you know how to print the address in a handle? Please let me know.

thanks
Sa'ad

Hi saadli,

I don't know how to print a handle address to the console window, but it's possible to use the debugger by setting a breakpoint on the line after the assignment statement and then entering debugging mode. The handle addresses appear in the Locals tab.

I tried this myself. The two addresses are very similar:

These variables have the following addresses:

These addresses are only 12 bytes apart, so I think it's safe to say that both exist on the heap.