Passing Array as an argument

An array is a data structure that contains a number of variables of the same type. Arrays are declared with a type:

type[] arrayName;

In C#, arrays are actually objects, and not just addressable regions of contiguous memory as in C and C++. Array is the abstract base type of all array types. You can use the properties, and other class members, that Array has. An example of this would be using the Length property to get the length of an array.

Arrays are mechanisms that allow you to treat several items as a single collection. The Microsoft® .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR) supports single-dimensional arrays, multidimensional arrays, and jagged arrays (arrays of arrays). All array types are implicitly derived from System.Array, which itself is derived from System.Object. This means that all arrays are always reference types which are allocated on the managed heap, and your app's variable contains a reference to the array and not the array itself.

Arrays are always passed by reference to a method.Since the CLR doesn't support the notion of constant parameters, this means that the method is able to change the elements in the array. If you don't want to allow the method to modify the elements, then you must make a copy of the array and pass the copy into the method. Note that the Array.Copy method does a shallow copy, and therefore if the array's elements are reference types, the new array refers to the already existing objects.

hope this help.

2 Replies

Know the answer? Post it — somebody with the same question will find it here.

Vulpes14y ago
If you really mean C (and not C#) then, if you pass an array as an argument to a function, it's the array's address that gets passed not a copy of its contents.

This means that the function can alter the contents of the array and the changes will be persisted when the function returns. So, in effect you're passing the array by reference rather than by value.
0
Jignesh Trivedi14y ago
An array is a data structure that contains a number of variables of the same type. Arrays are declared with a type:
type[] arrayName;
In C#, arrays are actually objects, and not just addressable regions of contiguous memory as in C and C++. Array is the abstract base type of all array types. You can use the properties, and other class members, that Array has. An example of this would be using the Length property to get the length of an array.
Arrays are mechanisms that allow you to treat several items as a single collection. The Microsoft® .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR) supports single-dimensional arrays, multidimensional arrays, and jagged arrays (arrays of arrays). All array types are implicitly derived from System.Array, which itself is derived from System.Object. This means that all arrays are always reference types which are allocated on the managed heap, and your app's variable contains a reference to the array and not the array itself.
Arrays are always passed by reference to a method.Since the CLR doesn't support the notion of constant parameters, this means that the method is able to change the elements in the array. If you don't want to allow the method to modify the elements, then you must make a copy of the array and pass the copy into the method. Note that the Array.Copy method does a shallow copy, and therefore if the array's elements are reference types, the new array refers to the already existing objects.

hope this help.
0