Making a value type behave as a reference type using Expression>

Question

We know that int is a value type and so the following makes sense:

int x = 3;
int y = x;
y = 5;
Console.WriteLine(x); //says 3. 

Now, here is a

Answer 1

You can do something like this:

public delegate void Setter(T newValue);
public delegate T Getter();
public class MagicPointer
{
    private Getter getter;
    private Setter setter;

    public T Value
    {
        get
        {
            return getter();
        }
        set
        {
            setter(value);
        }
    }

    public MagicPointer(Getter getter, Setter setter)
    {
        this.getter = getter;
        this.setter = setter;
    }

}

usage:

int foo = 3;
var pointer = new MagicPointer(() => foo, x => foo = x);
pointer.Value++;
//now foo is 4

Of course this solution doesn't guarantee a strong compile time control, because is up to the coder to write a good getter or setter.

Probably, if you need something like a pointer you should reconsider your design, because likely you can do it in another way in C# :)