Pointers for array access
suggest changeThis example demonstrates how pointers can be used for C-like access to C# arrays.
unsafe
{
var buffer = new int[1024];
fixed (int* p = &buffer[0])
{
for (var i = 0; i < buffer.Length; i++)
{
*(p + i) = i;
}
}
}
The unsafe
keyword is required because pointer access will not emit any bounds checks that are normally emitted when accessing C# arrays the regular way.
The fixed
keyword tells the C# compiler to emit instructions to pin the object in an exception-safe way. Pinning is required to ensure that the garbage collector will not move the array in memory, as that would invalidate any pointers pointing within the array.
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