Interlocked.Exchange nullable decimal

Question

I want to exchange two nullable decimal values, like this:

o2 = Interlocked.Exchange(ref o1, o2);

The type 'decimal?' must be a reference type in order to use it as parameter 'T' in the generic type or method 'System.Threading.Interlocked.Exchange(ref T, T)'.

Is there better idea than this:

decimal? temp = o1;
o1 = o2;
o2 = temp;

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Two thoughts:

• treat it as object and cast at the consumer
• create a Box<T> class where T:struct (and make it immutable), and swap some Box<decimal> references

In both cases, the consumer should take a clone of the value before anything else (no double reads; it may change between reads).