C# Array.Copy Examples

Invoke the Array.Copy and ConstrainedCopy methods to copy array elements.

Array.Copy. This method copies elements from one array to another. It has some complexities. This operation can result in certain exceptions.Array

Notes, copying. The type of elements—in both the target and source arrays—is important. Array.Copy is a static method—we reference it directly.Static

First example. Here we use the Array.Copy method overload that copies one source array to a destination array. Both arrays must have at least the length specified in the third parameter.Overload

Step 1: We create a new int array with 5 elements. We assign some integers to the elements.

Int Array

Step 2: Next we allocate an empty array of 5 ints. These are all 0 when the array is created.

Step 3: We invoke Copy, with 3 arguments—the source array, the destination array, and the length we want to copy.

Step 4: The target array is written to the Console. It has the same contents as the source array.

C# program that uses Array.Copy method using System; class Program { static void Main() { // Step 1: instantiate the source array. int[] source = new int[5]; source[0] = 1; source[1] = 2; source[2] = 3; source[3] = 4; source[4] = 5; // Step 2: instantiate and allocate the target array. int[] target = new int[5]; // Step 3: copy the source to the target. Array.Copy(source, target, 5); // Step 4: display the target array. Console.WriteLine("--- Target array ---"); foreach (int value in target) { Console.WriteLine(value); } } } Output --- Target array --- 1 2 3 4 5

Example 2. Here we copy one range in an array to another range in the second array. This style of code is fraught with exceptions and you have to be careful with checking the array bounds.

Next: The example copies the first 3 elements from the source array to a smaller target array.

C# program that copies array section using System; class Program { static void Main() { // Source array. int[] source = new int[5]; source[0] = 5; source[1] = 4; source[2] = 3; source[3] = 2; source[4] = 1; // Instantiate the target. int[] target = new int[3]; // Copy first 3 elements in source to target. Array.Copy(source, 0, target, 0, 3); // Display the result. Console.WriteLine("--- Destination array ---"); foreach (int value in target) { Console.WriteLine(value); } } } Output --- Destination array --- 5 4 3

Array.ConstrainedCopy. This method validates arrays before it copies them. The regular Array.Copy method will silently copy a byte array to an int array.

Info: The Array.ConstrainedCopy method instead throws an exception. This can improve reliability.

ArrayTypeMismatch Exception

Program: An array of bytes is created and a destination array of ints is also allocated. The Array.ConstrainedCopy method is then called.

Byte Array

Important: ConstrainedCopy throws an exception. It allows no conversions of elements to take place.

C# program that uses Array.ConstrainedCopy using System; class Program { static void Main() { byte[] original = new byte[10]; original[0] = 1; int[] destination = new int[10]; // This will work if you call Array.Copy instead. Array.ConstrainedCopy(original, 0, destination, 0, original.Length); } } Output Unhandled Exception: System.ArrayTypeMismatchException: Array.ConstrainedCopy will only work on array types that are provably compatible, without any form of boxing, unboxing, widening,or casting of each array element. Change the array types....

Copy, exceptions. Here we look at Array.Copy exceptions. First, you cannot copy from or to a null reference array. This raises the ArgumentNullException.ArgumentException NullReferenceException

Also: Each array must have adequate length for the complete copy operation. Otherwise we get an ArgumentException.

Array Length

Copy, internals. Looking into IL Disassembler, you will see that the Array.Copy overloads all call into the internal method Copy. This method is implemented in unmanaged code.IL Disassembler

Performance. The Array.Copy method is fast for most uses. It is simpler than manually copying all the elements. The Buffer class improves performance—with it, we must specify byte sizes.Buffer

List. You can use the List generic class instead of Array to copy collections of elements. With the List class, you can copy into a new List simply by using the constructor.Convert List, Array

A summary. Array.Copy can copy entire arrays or just sections of arrays. You must remember to allocate your arrays with adequate Length before calling Array.Copy.

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C# Array.Copy Examples

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