Box

Forked from Community Toolkit.

A class representing a boxed value type, providing build-time validation and automatic unboxing.

Box is a utility class that represents a boxed value type on the managed heap. It can be used in place of a non-generic object reference to a boxed value type, making the code more expressive and reducing the chances of errors.

Methods

GetFrom

public static Box<T> GetFrom(object obj)

Returns a Box<T> reference from the input object instance, representing a boxed T value.

DangerousGetFrom

public static Box<T> DangerousGetFrom(object obj)

Returns a Box<T> reference from the input object instance, representing a boxed T value. This method doesn't check the actual type of obj, so it is the responsibility of the caller to ensure it actually represents a boxed T value and not some other instance.

TryGetFrom

public static bool TryGetFrom(object obj, out Box<T>? box)

Tries to get a Box<T> reference from an input object representing a boxed T value. Returns true if a Box<T> instance was retrieved correctly, false otherwise.

Operators

implicit operator T

public static implicit operator T(Box<T> box)

Implicitly gets the T value from a given Box<T> instance.

implicit operator Box

public static implicit operator Box<T>(T value)

Implicitly creates a new Box<T> instance from a given T value.

Usage

Box and Unbox Value Type with Build-time Validation

Box<int> box = 42;
int sum = box.Value + 1;

Retrieve a Mutable Reference to a Boxed Value

Box<MyStruct> box = new MyStruct { Field1 = 1, Field2 = 2 };
ref MyStruct myStructRef = ref box.GetReference();
myStructRef.Field1 = 3;

Extension Methods

GetReference

public static ref T GetReference<T>(this Box<T> box) where T : struct

Gets a T reference from a Box<T> instance.

Usage

Box<MyStruct> box = new MyStruct { Field1 = 1, Field2 = 2 };
ref MyStruct myStructRef = ref box.GetReference();