is a string actually an array of characters in C#?

Question

1.00/5 (1 vote)

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string str = "abcd"; 
for(int i=0;i<str.length;++i)>
console.write(str[i]);

output: abcd

it seems like str is actually an array of characters!
this is being confusing!

we didn't declare any arrays, but how come we have str[0]=a and so on...?!

[Agent_Spock]
- Added code brackets

Posted 22-Jun-14 11:50am

Alexis i

Updated 22-Jun-14 23:15pm

agent_kruger

v2

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[no name] 22-Jun-14 18:52pm

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3669199/c-sharp-is-string-actually-an-array-of-chars-or-does-it-just-have-an-indexer

agent_kruger 23-Jun-14 5:15am

please explain in detail what you want sir?

3 solutions

Solution 1

It's both at the same time. An array is nothing but a pointer to a block of memory offset from a base address.

A string is a contiguous block of memory starting at the same address containing what is considered characters. These can be either one or more bytes long for each character. The pointer size matches the size of the characters in bytes.

Posted 22-Jun-14 13:06pm

Dave Kreskowiak

Comments

Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter 23-Jun-14 5:48am

It's right only at the memory level, but .NET and in it C# does not see String as an array-of-char!

Solution 2

Array is nothing but the collection of similar type of data . And a string is a block of memory which contains chars in contentious manner. In simple words a string is also known as a char array .

So in the above case you have got that output .

Posted 22-Jun-14 19:17pm

Pravuprasad

Comments

Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter 23-Jun-14 5:48am

It's right only at the memory level, but .NET and in it C# does not see String as an array-of-char!

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Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-22T23:46:00

Solution 3

If you only interested in the way how C# (and more specifically the .NET framework) looks at String - it is NOT an array.
The string[index] works because String class has an indexer to implement it...

C#

public extern char this[int index]
{
}

Posted 22-Jun-14 23:46pm

Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter