Should you use pointers (unsafe code) in C#?

c# .net pointers coding-style unsafe
Kredns picture Kredns · Feb 25, 2009 · Viewed 19.7k times · Source

Should you use pointers in your C# code? What are the benefits? Is it recommend by The Man (Microsoft)?

Answer

rbrayb picture rbrayb · Feb 25, 2009

From "The Man" himself:

The use of pointers is rarely required in C#, but there are some situations that require them. As examples, using an unsafe context to allow pointers is warranted by the following cases:

  • Dealing with existing structures on disk
  • Advanced COM or Platform Invoke scenarios that involve structures with pointers in them
  • Performance-critical code

The use of unsafe context in other situations is discouraged.

Specifically, an unsafe context should not be used to attempt to write C code in C#.

Caution:

Code written using an unsafe context cannot be verified to be safe, so it will be executed only when the code is fully trusted. In other words, unsafe code cannot be executed in an untrusted environment. For example, you cannot run unsafe code directly from the Internet.

Reference

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