Which is best for data store Struct/Classes?

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I would make the choice based on the following criteria

  • reference type vs value type semantics. If 2 objects are only equal if they are the same object, it indicates reference type semantics => class. If the value of its members defines equality (e.g. 2 DateTimes are equal if both represent the same point in time even if they are 2 distinct objects), value type semantics => struct
  • Memory footprint of the object. If the object is huge and frequently allocated, making it a struct would consume the stack much faster, hence I’d rather have it as a class. On the contrary, I’d rather avoid the GC penalty for small value types; hence make them a struct.
  • can you make the object immutable? I find structs great for ‘value objects’ – from the DDD book.
  • Would you face some boxing-unboxing penalty based on the usage of this object? If yes, go for class.

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