How do I clone a range of array elements to a new array?

Question

I have an array X of 10 elements. I would like to create a new array containing all the elements from X that begin at index 3 and ends in index 7. Sure I can easily write a

Answer 1

As an alternative to copying the data you can make a wrapper that gives you access to a part of the original array as if it was a copy of the part of the array. The advantage is that you don't get another copy of the data in memory, and the drawback is a slight overhead when accessing the data.

public class SubArray<T> : IEnumerable<T> {

   private T[] _original;
   private int _start;

   public SubArray(T[] original, int start, int len) {
      _original = original;
      _start = start;
      Length = len;
   }

   public T this[int index] {
      get {
         if (index < 0 || index >= Length) throw new IndexOutOfRangeException();
         return _original[_start + index];
      }
   }

   public int Length { get; private set; }

   public IEnumerator<T> GetEnumerator() {
      for (int i = 0; i < Length; i++) {
        yield return _original[_start + i];
      }
   }

   IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator() {
      return GetEnumerator();
   }

}

Usage:

int[] original = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };
SubArray<int> copy = new SubArray<int>(original, 2, 2);

Console.WriteLine(copy.Length); // shows: 2
Console.WriteLine(copy[0]); // shows: 3
foreach (int i in copy) Console.WriteLine(i); // shows 3 and 4

Answer 2

Array.ConstrainedCopy will work.

public static void ConstrainedCopy (
    Array sourceArray,
    int sourceIndex,
    Array destinationArray,
    int destinationIndex,
    int length
)

Answer 3

Cloning elements in an array is not something that can be done in a universal way. Do you want deep cloning or a simple copy of all members?

Let's go for the "best effort" approach: cloning objects using the ICloneable interface or binary serialization:

public static class ArrayExtensions
{
  public static T[] SubArray<T>(this T[] array, int index, int length)
  {
    T[] result = new T[length];

    for (int i=index;i<length+index && i<array.Length;i++)
    {
       if (array[i] is ICloneable)
          result[i-index] = (T) ((ICloneable)array[i]).Clone();
       else
          result[i-index] = (T) CloneObject(array[i]);
    }

    return result;
  }

  private static object CloneObject(object obj)
  {
    BinaryFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();

    using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream())
    {
      formatter.Serialize(stream, obj);

      stream.Seek(0,SeekOrigin.Begin);

      return formatter.Deserialize(stream);
    }
  }
}

This is not a perfect solution, because there simply is none that will work for any type of object.

Answer 4

string[] arr = { "Parrot" , "Snake" ,"Rabbit" , "Dog" , "cat" };

arr = arr.ToList().GetRange(0, arr.Length -1).ToArray();

Answer 5

In C# 8, they've introduced a new Range and Index type, which can be used like this:

int[] a = { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 };
Index i1 = 3;  // number 3 from beginning
Index i2 = ^4; // number 4 from end
var slice = a[i1..i2]; // { 3, 4, 5 }

References:

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/whats-new/dotnet-core-3-0#ranges-and-indices
• https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/building-c-8-0/

Answer 6

How about useing Array.ConstrainedCopy:

int[] ArrayOne = new int[8] {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8};
int[] ArrayTwo = new int[5];
Array.ConstrainedCopy(ArrayOne, 3, ArrayTwo, 0, 7-3);

---

Below is my original post. It will not work

You could use Array.CopyTo:

int[] ArrayOne = new int[8] {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8};
int[] ArrayTwo = new int[5];
ArrayOne.CopyTo(ArrayTwo,3); //starts copy at index=3 until it reaches end of
                             //either array