Weak reference benefits

Question

Can someone explain the main benefits of different types of references in C#?

• Weak references
• Soft references
• Phantom references
• Str

Answer 1

MSDN has a good explanation of weak references. The key quote is at the bottom where it says:

Avoid using weak references as an automatic solution to memory management problems. Instead, develop an effective caching policy for handling your application's objects.

Every time I've seen a WeakReference in the wild, it's been used as an automatic solution to memory management problems. There are likely better solutions to your application's problems.