Array Collection Type

The Array class is not part of the System.Collections namespaces. However, it is still a collection because it is based on the IList interface.

The rank of an Array object is the number of dimensions in the Array. An Array can have one or more ranks.

The lower bound of an Array is the index of its first element. An Array can have any lower bound. It has a lower bound of zero by default, but a different lower bound can be defined when creating an instance of the Array class using CreateInstance.

Unlike the classes in the System.Collections namespaces, Array has a fixed capacity. To increase the capacity, you must create a new Array object with the required capacity, copy the elements from the old Array object to the new one, and delete the old Array.

However, only the system and compilers can derive explicitly from the Array class. Users should use the array constructs provided by the language that they use.

See Also

Reference

Array

IList

System.Collections

System.Collections.Specialized

System.Collections.Generic

Other Resources

Commonly Used Collection Types