Question

Think of the following code:

static int Main() {
     byte[] data = File.ReadAllBytes("anyfile");
     SomeMethod(data);
     ...
}
static void SomeMethod(byte[] data) {
     data[0] = anybytevalue; // this line should not be possible!!!
     byte b = data[0];       // only reading should be allowed
     ...
}

Is there a way of readonly passing the byte[] in C#? Copying isn’t a solution. I would not like to waste memory (because the file might get very big). Please keep performance in mind!

Answer 1

You can pass a ReadOnlyCollection<byte>, like this:

static int Main() {
     byte[] data = File.ReadAllBytes("anyfile");
     SomeMethod(new ReadOnlyCollection<byte>(data));
     ...
}
static void SomeMethod(ReadOnlyCollection<byte> data) {
     byte b = data[0];       // only reading is allowed
     ...
}

However, it would be better to pass a Stream, like this:
This way, you won’t read the entire file into memory at all.

static int Main() {
     Stream file = File.OpenRead("anyfile");
     SomeMethod(file);
     ...
}
static void SomeMethod(Stream data) {
     byte b = data.ReadByte();       // only reading is allowed
     ...
}