Where is the class itself stored at runtime to be used as a reference

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In C# or Java we find that the objects are stored on heap and their reference vars are stored on stack. But at run time where is the class definition stored to be used as a template for creating objects?

Posted 18-Jan-16 6:58am

ganesh.dks

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Solution 3

In Java, the class itself can only be stored on the heap.
It has to be there because the static fields should be accessible during the lifetime of the VM.

Posted 18-Jan-16 12:25pm

Roland 57

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Richard MacCutchan · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-18T07:17:00

Solution 1

It is not stored anywhere. The class definition is used by the compiler to generate the executable code in the final program. If you mean the items that can be found via reflection then that information is part of the generated code in fixed memory.

Posted 18-Jan-16 7:17am

Richard MacCutchan

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-18T09:33:00

The class itself is stored in the code of your assembly and its metadata. .NET is one of the platform where all the information on all types is stored in the corresponding assemblies. .NET metadata is one of the central concepts of .NET; it makes reflection possible. You really need to learn it:
Type Class (System)[^],
Reflection (computer programming) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[^],
Metadata and Self-Describing Components[^],
Reflection in the .NET Framework[^].

The central class is the class System.Type (referenced above). The instance of this class holds all one may need to use the type, including the references to the IL code of each method. All this can be retrieved using reflection.

The term "reference" is related to the instance of the class, not class. Nevertheless, the instance always keep the reference to its type, it can be retrieved via the method System.Object.GetType():
Object.GetType Method (System)[^].

—SA