C # sharp : Arrays

Arrays, Collections & String Manipulation

Lesson Plan

Today we will explore arrays, collections and string manipulation in C#. First of all, we will explore

multidimensional rectangular and jagged arrays. We will also explore how foreach iterates through a collection.

Then we will move to collections and see how they are implemented in C#. Later, we will explore different

collections like ArrayLists, Stacks, Queues and Dictionaries. Finally, we will see how strings are manipulated in

C#. We will explore both the string and the StringBuilder types.

Arrays Revisited

As we have seen earlier, an array is a sequential collection of elements of a similar data type. In C#, an array is an

object and thus a reference type, and therefore they are stored on the heap. We have only covered single dimension

arrays in the previous lessons, now we will explore multidimensional arrays.

Multidimensional Arrays

A multidimensional array is an 'array of arrays'. A multidimensional array is the one in which each element of the

array is an array itself. It is similar to tables in a database where each primary element (row) is a collection of

secondary elements (columns). If the secondary elements do not contain a collection of other elements, it is called

a 2-dimensional array (the most common type of multidimensional array), otherwise it is called an n-dimensional

array where n is the depth of the chain of arrays. There are two types of multidimensional arrays in C#:

•  Rectangular array (one in which each row contains an equal number of columns)

•  Jagged array (one in which each row does not necessarily contain an equal number of columns)

The images below show what the different kinds of arrays look like. The figure also shows the indexes of different

elements of the arrays. Remember, the first element of an array is always zero (0).

REFERENCES:C# School book -

programmersheaven