Object

object is Cloth’s universal non-null object view. Classes, interfaces, strings, and arrays widen to it without changing identity. Primitive, enum, and struct values box into a managed object when they cross an object boundary; their ordinary storage remains unboxed.

object text = "Cloth";
object number = 42;
object? optional = number;
println(number.ToString());

object? admits null. A present nullable value boxes its payload when needed; an absent nullable value becomes null.

Identity and available operations

An object reference exposes Equals(Object?), HashCode(), and ToString(). It does not expose other members of the concrete type. Use a checked cast to recover an exact boxed value or a more specific reference.

Equality on object compares reference identity, including for values that happen to be strings. Expressions statically typed as string use content equality instead.

Equals is separate from ==. Value boxes compare the exact canonical type and payload. Their hashes agree whenever Equals is true. ToString formats the payload; it never derives text from a hash or native address.

Every non-null managed reference supports ::typeName. Classes report their qualified source name, strings report string, and arrays report array. Widening a reference does not change its runtime type.

Type tests and safe casts

object value = "Cloth";
bool isText = value is string;
string? text = value as string?;
if (text != null) {
  println(text::length);
}

object count = 42;
bool isInt32 = count is int32;
int32? restored = count as int32?;

is requires a non-null target and produces a boolean. as requires a nullable target and produces null when the runtime type does not match. is does not itself narrow a binding to the tested type.

Class checks include base classes; interface checks follow declared conformance. Value checks require the exact boxed type: an Int32 box does not unbox as int64 or uint32. Null does not match a non-null type. Checked array targets are unsupported. See conversions and casts.