Pointer arithmetic

Addition and subtraction in pointers works differently from integers. When a pointer is incremented or decremented, the address it points to is increased or decreased by the size of the referent type.

For example, the type int (alias for System.Int32) has a size of 4. If an int can be stored in address 0, the subsequent int can be stored in address 4, and so on. In code:

var ptr = (int*)IntPtr.Zero;
Console.WriteLine(new IntPtr(ptr)); // prints 0
ptr++;
Console.WriteLine(new IntPtr(ptr)); // prints 4
ptr++;
Console.WriteLine(new IntPtr(ptr)); // prints 8

Similarly, the type long (alias for System.Int64) has a size of 8. If a long can be stored in address 0, the subsequent longcan be stored in address 8, and so on. In code:

var ptr = (long*)IntPtr.Zero;
Console.WriteLine(new IntPtr(ptr)); // prints 0
ptr++;
Console.WriteLine(new IntPtr(ptr)); // prints 8
ptr++;
Console.WriteLine(new IntPtr(ptr)); // prints 16

The type void is special and void pointers are also special and they are used as catch-all pointers when the type isn’t known or doesn’t matter. Due to their size-agnostic nature, void pointers cannot be incremented or decremented:

var ptr = (void*)IntPtr.Zero;
Console.WriteLine(new IntPtr(ptr));
ptr++; // compile-time error
Console.WriteLine(new IntPtr(ptr));
ptr++; // compile-time error
Console.WriteLine(new IntPtr(ptr));