When should I use a struct instead of a class?

Question

MSDN says that you should use structs when you need lightweight objects. Are there any other scenarios when a struct is preferable over a class?

Some people might ha

Answer 1

I would use structs when:

1. an object is supposed to be read only(every time you pass/assign a struct it gets copied). Read only objects are great when it comes to multithreaded processing as they don't requite locking in most cases.

2. an object is small and short-living. In such a case there is a good chance that the object will be allocated on the stack which is much more efficient than putting it on the managed heap. What is more the memory allocated by the object will be freed as soon as it goes outside its scope. In other words it's less work for Garbage Collector and the memory is used more efficient.