Arrays (C# Programming Guide)
You can store multiple variables of the same type in an array data structure. You declare an array by specifying the type of its elements.
type[] arrayName;
The following examples create single-dimensional, multidimensional, and jagged arrays:
class TestArraysClass { static void Main() { // Declare a single-dimensional array int[] array1 = new int[5]; // Declare and set array element values int[] array2 = new int[] { 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 }; // Alternative syntax int[] array3 = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 }; // Declare a two dimensional array int[,] multiDimensionalArray1 = new int[2, 3]; // Declare and set array element values int[,] multiDimensionalArray2 = { { 1, 2, 3 }, { 4, 5, 6 } }; // Declare a jagged array int[][] jaggedArray = new int[6][]; // Set the values of the first array in the jagged array structure jaggedArray[0] = new int[4] { 1, 2, 3, 4 }; } }
An array has the following properties:
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An array can be Single-Dimensional, Multidimensional or Jagged.
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The number of dimensions and the length of each dimension are established when the array instance is created. These values can't be changed during the lifetime of the instance.
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The default values of numeric array elements are set to zero, and reference elements are set to null.
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A jagged array is an array of arrays, and therefore its elements are reference types and are initialized to null.
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Arrays are zero indexed: an array with n elements is indexed from 0 to n-1.
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Array elements can be of any type, including an array type.
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Array types are reference types derived from the abstract base type Array. Since this type implements IEnumerable and IEnumerable<T>, you can use foreach iteration on all arrays in C#.
For more information, see the C# Language Specification. The language specification is the definitive source for C# syntax and usage.