Hi,

    I'm wondering could anyone explain what a weak reference is to me in
C# or perhaps more importantly why it is used.

    I ask as I'm reading about an algorithm in the book "C# Cookbook" by
Stephen Teilhet & Jay Hilyard about a light-weight cache. There is a
piece of code that I don't understand, here it is:

*** CODE BEGIN ***

public void AddObj(object key, SomeComplexObj item)
{

    Weakreference WR = new WeakReference(item, false);

    if(cache.ContainsKey(key))
    {
        cache[key] = WR;
    }
    else
    {
        cache.Add(key, WR);
    }
}

*** CODE END ***

    I understand most of the algorithm, but i dont understand why the
author is using WeakReference, I dont see the advantage. Can anyone
help me please? Any comments/suggestions/explanations much
appreciated.

Thank you,
Al.