How are strings stored in an object array?

Question

object[] objs = new object[]{"one","two","three"};

Are the strings stored in the array as references to the string objects

[@] - one
[@] - two
[@] - three

or are the string objects stored in the array elements?

[one][two][three]

Thanks.

Edit: Sorry, my fancy diagram failed miserably.

Answer 1

String objects can never be stored directly in an array, or as any other variable. It's always references, even in a simple case such as:

string x = "foo";

Here the value of x is a reference, not an object. No expression value is ever an object - it's always either a reference, a value type value, or a pointer.