[c#] Memory address of an object in C#

I have a function written some time ago (for .NET 3.5), and now that I have upgraded to 4.0

I can't get it to work.

The function is:

public static class MemoryAddress
{
    public static string Get(object a)
    {
        GCHandle handle = GCHandle.Alloc(a, GCHandleType.Pinned);
        IntPtr pointer = GCHandle.ToIntPtr(handle);
        handle.Free();
        return "0x" + pointer.ToString("X");
    }
}

Now, when I call it - MemoryAddress.Get(new Car("blue"))

public class Car
{
    public string Color;
    public Car(string color)
    {
        Color = color;
    }
}

I get the error:

Object contains non-primitive or non-blittable data.

Why doesn't it work anymore?

How can I now get the memory address of managed objects?

You can use GCHandleType.Weak instead of Pinned. On the other hand, there is another way to get a pointer to an object:

object o = new object();
TypedReference tr = __makeref(o);
IntPtr ptr = **(IntPtr**)(&tr);

Requires unsafe block and is very, very dangerous and should not be used at all. ?

Back in the day when by-ref locals weren't possible in C#, there was one undocumented mechanism that could accomplish a similar thing – __makeref.

object o = new object();
ref object r = ref o;
//roughly equivalent to
TypedReference tr = __makeref(o);

There is one important difference in that TypedReference is "generic"; it can be used to store a reference to a variable of any type. Accessing such a reference requires to specify its type, e.g. __refvalue(tr, object), and if it doesn't match, an exception is thrown.

To implement the type checking, TypedReference must have two fields, one with the actual address to the variable, and one with a pointer to its type representation. It just so happens that the address is the first field.

Therefore, __makeref is used first to obtain a reference to the variable o. The cast (IntPtr**)(&tr) treats the structure as an array (represented via a pointer) of IntPtr* (pointers to a generic pointer type), accessed via a pointer to it. The pointer is first dereferenced to obtain the first field, then the pointer there is dereferenced again to obtain the value actually stored in the variable o – the pointer to the object itself.

However, since 2012, I have come up with a better and safer solution:

public static class ReferenceHelpers
{
    public static readonly Action<object, Action<IntPtr>> GetPinnedPtr;

    static ReferenceHelpers()
    {
        var dyn = new DynamicMethod("GetPinnedPtr", typeof(void), new[] { typeof(object), typeof(Action<IntPtr>) }, typeof(ReferenceHelpers).Module);
        var il = dyn.GetILGenerator();
        il.DeclareLocal(typeof(object), true);
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Ldarg_0);
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Stloc_0);
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Ldarg_1);
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Ldloc_0);
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Conv_I);
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Call, typeof(Action<IntPtr>).GetMethod("Invoke"));
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Ret);
        GetPinnedPtr = (Action<object, Action<IntPtr>>)dyn.CreateDelegate(typeof(Action<object, Action<IntPtr>>));
    }
}

This creates a dynamic method that first pins the object (so its storage doesn't move in the managed heap), then executes a delegate that receives its address. During the execution of the delegate, the object is still pinned and thus safe to be manipulated via the pointer:

object o = new object();
ReferenceHelpers.GetPinnedPtr(o, ptr => Console.WriteLine(Marshal.ReadIntPtr(ptr) == typeof(object).TypeHandle.Value)); //the first pointer in the managed object header in .NET points to its run-time type info

This is the easiest way to pin an object, since GCHandle requires the type to be blittable in order to pin it. It has the advantage of not using implementation details, undocumented keywords and memory hacking.

When you free that handle, the garbage collector is free to move the memory that was pinned. If you have a pointer to memory that's supposed to be pinned, and you un-pin that memory, then all bets are off. That this worked at all in 3.5 was probably just by luck. The JIT compiler and the runtime for 4.0 probably do a better job of object lifetime analysis.

If you really want to do this, you can use a try/finally to prevent the object from being un-pinned until after you've used it:

public static string Get(object a)
{
    GCHandle handle = GCHandle.Alloc(a, GCHandleType.Pinned);
    try
    {
        IntPtr pointer = GCHandle.ToIntPtr(handle);
        return "0x" + pointer.ToString("X");
    }
    finally
    {
        handle.Free();
    }
}

This works for me...

#region AddressOf

    /// <summary>
    /// Provides the current address of the given object.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="obj"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    [System.Runtime.CompilerServices.MethodImpl(System.Runtime.CompilerServices.MethodImplOptions.AggressiveInlining)]
    public static System.IntPtr AddressOf(object obj)
    {
        if (obj == null) return System.IntPtr.Zero;

        System.TypedReference reference = __makeref(obj);

        System.TypedReference* pRef = &reference;

        return (System.IntPtr)pRef; //(&pRef)
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Provides the current address of the given element
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T"></typeparam>
    /// <param name="t"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    [System.Runtime.CompilerServices.MethodImpl(System.Runtime.CompilerServices.MethodImplOptions.AggressiveInlining)]
    public static System.IntPtr AddressOf<T>(T t)
        //refember ReferenceTypes are references to the CLRHeader
        //where TOriginal : struct
    {
        System.TypedReference reference = __makeref(t);

        return *(System.IntPtr*)(&reference);
    }

    [System.Runtime.CompilerServices.MethodImpl(System.Runtime.CompilerServices.MethodImplOptions.AggressiveInlining)]
    static System.IntPtr AddressOfRef<T>(ref T t)
    //refember ReferenceTypes are references to the CLRHeader
    //where TOriginal : struct
    {
        System.TypedReference reference = __makeref(t);

        System.TypedReference* pRef = &reference;

        return (System.IntPtr)pRef; //(&pRef)
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Returns the unmanaged address of the given array.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="array"></param>
    /// <returns><see cref="IntPtr.Zero"/> if null, otherwise the address of the array</returns>
    [System.Runtime.CompilerServices.MethodImpl(System.Runtime.CompilerServices.MethodImplOptions.AggressiveInlining)]
    public static System.IntPtr AddressOfByteArray(byte[] array)
    {
        if (array == null) return System.IntPtr.Zero;

        fixed (byte* ptr = array)
            return (System.IntPtr)(ptr - 2 * sizeof(void*)); //Todo staticaly determine size of void?
    }

    #endregion

Here's a simple way I came up with that doesn't involve unsafe code or pinning the object. Also works in reverse (object from address):

public static class AddressHelper
{
    private static object mutualObject;
    private static ObjectReinterpreter reinterpreter;

    static AddressHelper()
    {
        AddressHelper.mutualObject = new object();
        AddressHelper.reinterpreter = new ObjectReinterpreter();
        AddressHelper.reinterpreter.AsObject = new ObjectWrapper();
    }

    public static IntPtr GetAddress(object obj)
    {
        lock (AddressHelper.mutualObject)
        {
            AddressHelper.reinterpreter.AsObject.Object = obj;
            IntPtr address = AddressHelper.reinterpreter.AsIntPtr.Value;
            AddressHelper.reinterpreter.AsObject.Object = null;
            return address;
        }
    }

    public static T GetInstance<T>(IntPtr address)
    {
        lock (AddressHelper.mutualObject)
        {
            AddressHelper.reinterpreter.AsIntPtr.Value = address;
            return (T)AddressHelper.reinterpreter.AsObject.Object;
        }
    }

    // I bet you thought C# was type-safe.
    [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Explicit)]
    private struct ObjectReinterpreter
    {
        [FieldOffset(0)] public ObjectWrapper AsObject;
        [FieldOffset(0)] public IntPtrWrapper AsIntPtr;
    }

    private class ObjectWrapper
    {
        public object Object;
    }

    private class IntPtrWrapper
    {
        public IntPtr Value;
    }
}

Getting the address of an arbitrary object in .NET is not possible, but can be done if you change the source code and use mono. See instructions here: Get Memory Address of .NET Object (C#)

Switch the alloc type:

GCHandle handle = GCHandle.Alloc(a, GCHandleType.Normal);

Instead of this code, you should call GetHashCode(), which will return a (hopefully-)unique value for each instance.

You can also use the ObjectIDGenerator class, which is guaranteed to be unique.

There's a better solution if you don't really need the memory address but rather some means of uniquely identifying a managed object:

using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;

public static class Extensions
{
    private static readonly ConditionalWeakTable<object, RefId> _ids = new ConditionalWeakTable<object, RefId>();

    public static Guid GetRefId<T>(this T obj) where T: class
    {
        if (obj == null)
            return default(Guid);

        return _ids.GetOrCreateValue(obj).Id;
    }

    private class RefId
    {
        public Guid Id { get; } = Guid.NewGuid();
    }
}

This is thread safe and uses weak references internally, so you won't have memory leaks.

You can use any key generation means that you like. I'm using Guid.NewGuid() here because it's simple and thread safe.

Update

I went ahead and created a Nuget package Overby.Extensions.Attachments that contains some extension methods for attaching objects to other objects. There's an extension called GetReferenceId() that effectively does what the code in this answer shows.