Storing a reference in c#

Question

I'm trying to design a class which can update a reference to an object (outside the class) on destruction.

So essentially you create an instance of this object and pass it a reference type (in whichever manner, constructor etc.) and then on destruction of the object the original reference has changed to a reference created by the object.

If I pass a reference by reference (say in construction) I can't figure a way to store this reference (as a reference) for the destructor to update it? For example (pseudo):

class Updater
{
    object privateReference;
    public Updater(ref object externalReference)
    {
        privateReference = externalReference; //is privateReference now a new reference to the original object?
    }

    ~Updater()
    {
        privateReference = new object(); //therefore this isn't 'repointing' the externalReference
    }
}

The key here is I'm not trying to mutate the original 'external' object from this class I'm trying to 'repoint' it, or initialise it if you will.

Answer 1

You can't do this, basically. ref is only applicable within the method itself, effectively.

It's not at all clear what you want to use this for - could you give us more information so we can suggest alternative designs? Anything which relies on a finalizer is troubling to start with, to be honest...