假设您有一个包含1,000,000个结构体的数组。每个结构体都用bid_price、offer_price(可能是小数)等表示权益，这是由c# /VB创建的。

假设数组是在非托管堆中分配的内存块中创建的，以便其他一些本地代码线程能够并发地访问该数组(可能是一些高性能代码进行数学运算)。

想象一下c# /VB代码正在监听价格变化的市场反馈，该代码可能必须访问数组的某些元素(用于任何安全性)，然后修改一些价格字段。

想象一下，这个过程以每秒数万次甚至数十万次的速度进行。

让我们面对现实吧，在这种情况下，我们确实希望这些结构体是可变的，它们必须是可变的，因为它们被其他本地代码共享所以创建副本是没有用的;他们需要这样做，因为以这样的速率复制大约120字节的结构是疯狂的，特别是当一个更新实际上可能只影响一两个字节时。

Hugo

它与结构无关(也与c#无关)，但在Java中，当可变对象是哈希映射中的键时，你可能会遇到问题。如果你在将它们添加到映射后更改它们，它也更改了哈希代码，可能会发生糟糕的事情。

可变数据有许多优点和缺点。最大的缺点就是别名。如果相同的值在多个地方使用，其中一个地方更改了它，那么它将神奇地更改到正在使用它的其他地方。这与竞态条件有关，但并不完全相同。

有时候，价值百万美元的优势是模块化。可变状态允许您向代码隐藏更改的信息，而代码不需要知道这些信息。

《解释器的艺术》详细讨论了这些权衡，并给出了一些例子。

Value types basically represents immutable concepts. Fx, it makes no sense to have a mathematical value such as an integer, vector etc. and then be able to modify it. That would be like redefining the meaning of a value. Instead of changing a value type, it makes more sense to assign another unique value. Think about the fact that value types are compared by comparing all the values of its properties. The point is that if the properties are the same then it is the same universal representation of that value.

正如Konrad所提到的，更改日期也没有意义，因为值代表的是唯一的时间点，而不是具有任何状态或上下文依赖关系的时间对象的实例。

希望这能让你明白。可以肯定的是，它更多的是关于您试图用值类型捕获的概念，而不是实际的细节。

从程序员的角度来看，还有一些其他的极端情况可能导致不可预测的行为。

不可变值类型和只读字段

    // Simple mutable structure. 
    // Method IncrementI mutates current state.
    struct Mutable
    {
        public Mutable(int i) : this() 
        {
            I = i;
        }

        public void IncrementI() { I++; }

        public int I { get; private set; }
    }

    // Simple class that contains Mutable structure
    // as readonly field
    class SomeClass 
    {
        public readonly Mutable mutable = new Mutable(5);
    }

    // Simple class that contains Mutable structure
    // as ordinary (non-readonly) field
    class AnotherClass 
    {
        public Mutable mutable = new Mutable(5);
    }

    class Program
    {
        void Main()
        {
            // Case 1. Mutable readonly field
            var someClass = new SomeClass();
            someClass.mutable.IncrementI();
            // still 5, not 6, because SomeClass.mutable field is readonly
            // and compiler creates temporary copy every time when you trying to
            // access this field
            Console.WriteLine(someClass.mutable.I);

            // Case 2. Mutable ordinary field
            var anotherClass = new AnotherClass();
            anotherClass.mutable.IncrementI();

            // Prints 6, because AnotherClass.mutable field is not readonly
            Console.WriteLine(anotherClass.mutable.I);
        }
    }

可变值类型和数组

假设我们有一个可变结构的数组，我们为该数组的第一个元素调用IncrementI方法。你希望从这个电话中得到什么行为?它应该改变数组的值还是只改变一个副本?

    Mutable[] arrayOfMutables = new Mutable[1];
    arrayOfMutables[0] = new Mutable(5);

    // Now we actually accessing reference to the first element
    // without making any additional copy
    arrayOfMutables[0].IncrementI();

    // Prints 6!!
    Console.WriteLine(arrayOfMutables[0].I);

    // Every array implements IList<T> interface
    IList<Mutable> listOfMutables = arrayOfMutables;

    // But accessing values through this interface lead
    // to different behavior: IList indexer returns a copy
    // instead of an managed reference
    listOfMutables[0].IncrementI(); // Should change I to 7

    // Nope! we still have 6, because previous line of code
    // mutate a copy instead of a list value
    Console.WriteLine(listOfMutables[0].I);

因此，只要您和团队的其他成员清楚地了解您在做什么，可变结构就不是邪恶的。但是有太多的极端情况，当程序行为与预期不同时，这可能会导致微妙的难以产生和难以理解的错误。

如果你坚持结构体的用途(在c#、Visual Basic 6、Pascal/Delphi、c++结构类型(或类)中，当它们不用作指针时)，你会发现结构体只不过是一个复合变量。这意味着:您将把它们视为一个通用名称(您引用成员的记录变量)下的一组变量。

我知道这会让很多习惯于面向对象编程的人感到困惑，但如果使用得当，这并不是说这些东西本质上是邪恶的理由。有些结构按照它们的意图是不可变的(Python的namedtuple就是这种情况)，但这是另一种需要考虑的范例。

是的:结构体涉及大量内存，但它不会精确地通过执行以下操作来增加内存:

point.x = point.x + 1

相比:

point = Point(point.x + 1, point.y)

在不可变的情况下，内存消耗至少是相同的，甚至更多(尽管这种情况对于当前堆栈来说是临时的，这取决于语言)。

But, finally, structures are structures, not objects. In POO, the main property of an object is their identity, which most of the times is not more than its memory address. Struct stands for data structure (not a proper object, and so they don't have identity anyhow), and data can be modified. In other languages, record (instead of struct, as is the case for Pascal) is the word and holds the same purpose: just a data record variable, intended to be read from files, modified, and dumped into files (that is the main use and, in many languages, you can even define data alignment in the record, while that's not necessarily the case for properly called Objects).

Want a good example? Structs are used to read files easily. Python has this library because, since it is object-oriented and has no support for structs, it had to implement it in another way, which is somewhat ugly. Languages implementing structs have that feature... built-in. Try reading a bitmap header with an appropriate struct in languages like Pascal or C. It will be easy (if the struct is properly built and aligned; in Pascal you would not use a record-based access but functions to read arbitrary binary data). So, for files and direct (local) memory access, structs are better than objects. As for today, we're used to JSON and XML, and so we forget the use of binary files (and as a side effect, the use of structs). But yes: they exist, and have a purpose.

他们并不邪恶。只要把它们用在正确的地方。

如果你从锤子的角度思考，你会想把螺丝当作钉子，发现螺丝更难扎进墙里，这将是螺丝的错，它们将是邪恶的。