Create an array that points to only part of another array?

Question

I have a huge array that contains reference type elements, and I want to create a lot of other arrays that essentially just point to specific parts of that one big array.

In other words, I want to create "indexers" or "pointers with lengths".

In C++ it's easy to do so using pointers and for each pointer assign a length, for example create a struct which contains a pointer with a length.

How can I achieve this in C#/.NET?

The whole point is to avoid copying anything, I just want pointers to specific parts in an array that already exists in memory.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Jon's suggestion of using ArraySegment<T> is likely what you want. If however you are wanting to represent a pointer to the interior of an array, the way you can in C++, here's some code for that. No warranty is expressed or implied, use at your own risk.

This code does not track the "length" of the interior pointer in any way, but it is quite easy to add that feature if you want.

internal struct ArrayPtr<T>
{
  public static ArrayPtr<T> Null { get { return default(ArrayPtr<T>); } }
  private readonly T[] source;
  private readonly int index;

  private ArrayPtr(ArrayPtr<T> old, int delta)
  {
    this.source = old.source;
    this.index = old.index + delta;
    Debug.Assert(index >= 0);
    Debug.Assert(index == 0 || this.source != null && index < this.source.Length);
  }

  public ArrayPtr(T[] source)
  {
    this.source = source;
    index = 0;
  }

  public bool IsNull()
  {
    return this.source == null;
  }

  public static bool operator <(ArrayPtr<T> a, ArrayPtr<T> b)
  {
    Debug.Assert(Object.ReferenceEquals(a.source, b.source));
    return a.index < b.index;
  }

  public static bool operator >(ArrayPtr<T> a, ArrayPtr<T> b)
  {
    Debug.Assert(Object.ReferenceEquals(a.source, b.source));
    return a.index > b.index;
  }

  public static bool operator <=(ArrayPtr<T> a, ArrayPtr<T> b)
  {
    Debug.Assert(Object.ReferenceEquals(a.source, b.source));
    return a.index <= b.index;
  }

  public static bool operator >=(ArrayPtr<T> a, ArrayPtr<T> b)
  {
    Debug.Assert(Object.ReferenceEquals(a.source, b.source));
    return a.index >= b.index;
  }

  public static int operator -(ArrayPtr<T> a, ArrayPtr<T> b)
  {
    Debug.Assert(Object.ReferenceEquals(a.source, b.source));
    return a.index - b.index;
  }

  public static ArrayPtr<T> operator +(ArrayPtr<T> a, int count)
  {
    return new ArrayPtr<T>(a, +count);
  }

  public static ArrayPtr<T> operator -(ArrayPtr<T> a, int count)
  {
    return new ArrayPtr<T>(a, -count);
  }

  public static ArrayPtr<T> operator ++(ArrayPtr<T> a)
  {
    return a + 1;
  }

  public static ArrayPtr<T> operator --(ArrayPtr<T> a)
  {
    return a - 1;
  }

  public static implicit operator ArrayPtr<T>(T[] x)
  {
    return new ArrayPtr<T>(x);
  }

  public static bool operator ==(ArrayPtr<T> x, ArrayPtr<T> y)
  {
    return x.source == y.source && x.index == y.index;
  }

  public static bool operator !=(ArrayPtr<T> x, ArrayPtr<T> y)
  {
    return !(x == y);
  }

  public override bool Equals(object x)
  {
    if (x == null) return this.source == null;
    var ptr = x as ArrayPtr<T>?;
    if (!ptr.HasValue) return false;
    return this == ptr.Value;
  }

  public override int GetHashCode()
  {
    unchecked
    {
      int hash = this.source == null ? 0 : this.source.GetHashCode();
      return hash + this.index;
    }
  }

  public T this[int index]
  {
    get { return source[index + this.index]; }
    set { source[index + this.index] = value; }
  }
}

Now we can do stuff like:

double[] arr = new double[10];
var p0 = (ArrayPtr<double>)arr;
var p5 = p0 + 5;
p5[0] = 123.4; // sets arr[5] to 123.4
var p7 = p0 + 7;
int diff = p7 - p5; // 2

Answer 2

It sounds like you're looking for something like ArraySegment<T>. Contrary to my earlier thoughts, it does have an indexer and implement IEnumerable<T> etc - it's just done with explicit interfaces.

Sample code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

static class Test
{
    static void Main()
    {
        string[] original = { "The", "quick", "brown", "fox", "jumped", "over",
                "the", "lazy", "dog" };

        IList<string> segment = new ArraySegment<string>(original, 3, 4);
        Console.WriteLine(segment[2]); // over
        foreach (var word in segment)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(word); // fox jumped over the
        }
    }
}

EDIT: As noted in comments, ArraySegment<T> is only really "fully functional" in .NET 4.5. The .NET 4 version doesn't implement any interfaces.

Answer 3

You could use LINQ:

yourArray.Skip(startIndex).Take(numberToTake)

The query is lazily evaluated.