Common Type System

  • Article

The common type system defines how types are declared, used, and managed in the runtime, and is also an important part of the runtime's support for cross-language integration. The common type system performs the following functions:

  • Establishes a framework that helps enable cross-language integration, type safety, and high performance code execution.
  • Provides an object-oriented model that supports the complete implementation of many programming languages.
  • Defines rules that languages must follow, which helps ensure that objects written in different languages can interact with each other.

In This Section

  • Common Type System Overview
    Describes concepts and defines terms relating to the common type system.
  • Type Definitions
    Describes user-defined types.
  • Type Members
    Describes events, fields, nested types, methods, and properties, and concepts such as member overloading, overriding, and inheritance.
  • Value Types
    Describes built-in and user-defined value types.
  • Classes
    Describes the characteristics of common language runtime classes.
  • Delegates
    Describes the delegate object, which is the managed alternative to unmanaged function pointers.
  • Arrays
    Describes common language runtime array types.
  • Interfaces
    Describes characteristics of interfaces and the restrictions on interfaces imposed by the common language runtime.
  • Pointers
    Describes managed pointers, unmanaged pointers, and unmanaged function pointers.
  • Class Library
    Provides a reference to the classes, interfaces, and value types included in the Microsoft .NET Framework SDK.
  • Common Language Runtime
    Describes the run-time environment that manages the execution of code and provides application development services.