6.3. Creating an object with the new operator

Like Java, there is only one way ^[4] to create a new object in C# – by using the new keyword.

^[4] There are two ways to create a new object in C++. Car c(); (creates a Car object on the stack), and Car *c = new Car(); (creates a Car object on the heap). For the case of C#, you can only create an instance of an object using the new keyword. There is no way for the C# developer to control whether a new object is to be created on the heap or stack. All C# objects (reference types) are created on the heap, and all value types are created on the stack.

Like Java

Creating an object in C# is very similar to creating an object in Java. The following statement creates a new object object (object with a small 'o' is an alias for the System.Object class in C#):

new object();

The expression returns an object reference to the new object created on the heap, which you should assign to a variable of an appropriate reference type.

The following works fine:

object o = new object();

Unlike Java

In C#, the keyword new can also be used to create a method which hides a method of the same signature in a superclass. So, don't be surprised to see a method being declared like 'new public void DoSomething();' in C#. This is called 'name hiding', or in this case 'method hiding'.