Does casting to base class involve boxing and unboxing

Question

Having below classes:

public abstract class FieldElementBaseCL : FormElementBaseCL
{
    public FieldElementBaseCL(FormElementGroupBaseCL parentElement, int linkedFieldID) : base(parentElement)
    {
        LinkedFieldID = linkedFieldID;
    }

    [DataMember]
    [Browsable(false)]
    public int LinkedFieldID { get; set; }

    [Browsable(false)]
    public LabelControl LabelComponent { get; set; }

    public abstract FieldElementDTOBase GetElementDTO();

}

[DataContract]
public class FieldElementNumberEditCL : FieldElementBaseCL
{
    public FieldElementNumberEditCL(FormElementGroupBaseCL parentElement, int linkedFieldID) : base(parentElement, linkedFieldID)
    {

    }

    public override FieldElementDTOBase GetElementDTO()
    {
        FieldElementNumberEditDTOCL elementDTO = new FieldElementNumberEditDTOCL();

        return elementDTO;
    }
}

As you see, there is line which creates instance of FieldElementNumberEditCL class. So, does GetElementDTO involve boxing/unboxing as its return type is FieldElementBaseCL?

Answer 1

Boxing and unboxing is only applicable to value types. Value types are those declared with struct. You are not using struct, you are using class. Therefore, boxing/unboxing is completely inapplicable to you.