Boxing (C++/CLI)

Boxing is the process of converting a value type to the type object or to any interface type that's implemented by the value type. When the common language runtime (CLR) boxes a value type, it wraps the value in a System.Object and stores it on the managed heap. Unboxing extracts the value type from the object. Boxing is implicit; unboxing is explicit.

Related Articles

Title	Description
How to: Explicitly Request Boxing	Describes how to explicitly request boxing on a variable.
How to: Use gcnew to Create Value Types and Use Implicit Boxing	Shows how to use gcnew to create a boxed value type that can be placed on the managed, garbage-collected heap.
How to: Unbox	Shows how to unbox and modify a value.
Standard Conversions and Implicit Boxing	Shows that a standard conversion is chosen by the compiler over a conversion that requires boxing.
.NET Programming in Visual C++	The top-level article for .NET programming in the Visual C++ documentation.