The Heap Is Not the Stack

What actually happens when C# creates values, objects, references, and local variables

coding | seaphylla | omnivorous

10 min read

·

Oct 4, 2026

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One of the first explanations that took me beneath the surface of C# looked something like this.

STACK                         HEAP

int age = 42                  Person object
bool active = true            List object
reference to customer -->     Customer object

It’s wonderfully easy to remember, and tremendously useful, because it introduces a distinction that C# syntax can make surprisingly easy to miss.
It comes down to understanding that a variable can hold the thing itself, or it can hold a way to get to the thing.

Imagine we are building a game. Somewhere in that game is a player called Ada. She has 100 health points and a sword.

player1 ─────┐
             │
             ▼
       PLAYER OBJECT
       ┌───────────────┐
       │ Name: Ada     │
       │ Health: 100   │
       │ Weapon: Sword │
       └───────────────┘

The variable player1 is not Ada. It contains a reference that lets our code reach Ada's Player object.

Now we do this.

Player player2 = player1;