How do I initialize an empty array in C#?

c# arrays initialization
yogesh picture yogesh · Jan 4, 2012 · Viewed 570.2k times · Source

Is it possible to create an empty array without specifying the size?

For example, I created:

String[] a = new String[5];

Can we create the above string array without the size?

Answer

Oded picture Oded · Jan 4, 2012

If you are going to use a collection that you don't know the size of in advance, there are better options than arrays.

Use a List<string> instead - it will allow you to add as many items as you need and if you need to return an array, call ToArray() on the variable.

var listOfStrings = new List<string>();

// do stuff...

string[] arrayOfStrings = listOfStrings.ToArray();

If you must create an empty array you can do this:

string[] emptyStringArray = new string[0];

Related questions

Initialize a byte array to a certain value, other than the default null?

I'm busy rewriting an old project that was done in C++, to C#. My task is to rewrite the program so that it functions as close to the original as possible. During a bunch of file-handling the previous developer who …

Read More
Options for initializing a string array

What options do I have when initializing string[] object?

Read More
C# syntax to initialize custom class/objects through constructor params in array?

I have a class with minimum 4 variables and I have made a constructor for the class so that I can initialize it with MyClass testobj = new MyClass(1234,56789,"test text", "something else", "foo"); Works fine. Then I have an array of …

Read More