.NET unique object identifier

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.NET 4 and later only

Good news, everyone!

The perfect tool for this job is built in .NET 4 and it’s called ConditionalWeakTable<TKey, TValue>. This class:

  • can be used to associate arbitrary data with managed object instances much like a dictionary (although it is not a dictionary)
  • does not depend on memory addresses, so is immune to the GC compacting the heap
  • does not keep objects alive just because they have been entered as keys into the table, so it can be used without making every object in your process live forever
  • uses reference equality to determine object identity; moveover, class authors cannot modify this behavior so it can be used consistently on objects of any type
  • can be populated on the fly, so does not require that you inject code inside object constructors

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