Introducing the Common Type System

The .NET Framework provides a special way of manipulating data types, called the Common Type System. In its name, the word Common has two particular meanings. First, the Common Type System provides a unified model for exposing data types so that all the .NET languages, such as Visual Basic, Visual C#, and Visual F#, can consume the same data types. For example, a 32-bit integer is represented by the System.Int32 data type, and all the .NET languages can invoke the System.Int32 object for declaring integers because this type is provided by the .NET Framework and is language independent. Second, each data type is an object that inherits from the System.Object class, as we discuss next.