C pointers in C#

Question

Is this function declaration in C#:

void foo(string mystring)

the same as this one in C:

void foo(char *)

i.e. In C#, does the called function receive a pointer behind the scenes?

Answer 1

In this specific instance, it is more like:

void foo(const char *);

.Net strings are immutable and passed by reference. However, in general C# receives a pointer or reference to an object behind the scenes.

Answer 2

There are pointers behind the scenes in C#, though they are more like C++'s smart pointers, so the raw pointers are encapsulated. A char* isn't really the same as System.String since a pointer to a char usually means the start of a character array, and a C# string is an object with a length field and a character array. The pointer points to the outer structure which points into something like a wchar_t array, so there's some indirection with a C# string and wider characters for Unicode support.