To ref or not to ref

So the question is what is the point of passing a reference type along with the ref keyword?

Scenario 1:

I have an Employee class as below.

public class Employee
{

public string FirstName { get; set; }
public string LastName { get; set; }
 
public override string ToString()
{

return string.Format("{0}-{1}", FirstName, LastName);

}

}

In my calling class, I say:

class Program
{

static void Main()
{

Employee employee = new Employee

{

FirstName = "John",

LastName = "Doe"

};

Console.WriteLine(employee);

CallSomeMethod(employee);

Console.WriteLine(employee);

}
private static void CallSomeMethod(Employee employee)
{

employee.FirstName = "Smith";

employee.LastName = "Doe";

}

}

After having a look at the code, you’ll probably say,

Well, an instance of a class gets passed as a reference, so any changes to the instance inside the CallSomeMethod, actually modifies the original object. Hence the output will be ‘John-Doe’ on the first call and ‘Smith-Doe’ on the second.

And you’re right:

So the question is what’s the use of passing this Employee parameter as a ref?

Read more: IBloggable - implemented

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