Array

Arrays are an essential part of programming, as they allow us to store and manipulate multiple values of the same data type under a single variable name. In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at arrays in C# and explore some examples to help you understand their practical use.

Declaring an array in C#

In C#, arrays are declared by specifying the data type followed by square brackets [] and then the variable name. For example, the following code creates an integer array named “numbers” that can hold five integer values:

int[] numbers = new int[5];

Here, we are declaring an integer array with five elements. We specify the data type (int), followed by square brackets [] to indicate that this is an array. The keyword “new” is used to allocate memory for the array, and the value in the brackets (5) represents the number of elements that the array can hold.

Initializing an array

Once we have declared an array, we can initialize it by assigning values to each of its elements. There are a few different ways to do this in C#.

1) Initialize array elements during declaration:

int[] numbers = new int[] {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};

Here, we are initializing the array with five integer values: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

2) Initialize array elements without declaring size:

int[] numbers = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};

In this case, the compiler will automatically determine the size of the array based on the number of elements that are provided in the initialization.

Accessing array elements

To access the elements of an array, we use the array index. Array indexing in C# starts at zero. For example, to access the first element of the “numbers” array, we use the following code:

int firstNumber = numbers[0];

Here, we are using the array index (0) to access the first element of the “numbers” array and store its value in the “firstNumber” variable.

Looping through an array

Loops are a powerful tool when it comes to working with arrays. For example, the following code uses a “for” loop to iterate through each element of the “numbers” array and print its value to the console:

for (int i = 0; i < numbers.Length; i++)
{
    Console.WriteLine(numbers[i]);
}

Here, we are using a “for” loop to iterate through each element of the “numbers” array. We are using the “Length” property to determine the number of elements in the array. The loop starts at 0 and continues until the index is equal to the length of the array minus one.

Conclusion

Arrays are an essential part of programming, and they allow us to store and manipulate multiple values of the same data type under a single variable name. In C#, arrays are declared by specifying the data type followed by square brackets [] and then the variable name. We can initialize arrays using various techniques and access their elements using the array index. Loops are an excellent tool to work with arrays, allowing us to iterate through each element and perform operations on them.