Full Name:
Passing Reference-Type Parameters (C#)

Short Name:
Passing Reference-Type Parameters (C#)

Type of Entity:
C#

Abstract:
A variable of a reference type does not contain its data directly; it contains a reference to its data. When you pass a reference-type parameter by value, it is possible to change the data pointed to by the reference, such as the value of a class member. However, you cannot change the value of the reference itself; that is, you cannot use the same reference to allocate memory for a new class and have it persist outside the block. To do that, pass the parameter using the ref or out keyword. For simplicity, the following examples use ref.

MSDN Source URL:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/s6938f28.aspx