Question

To create and initialize an array with another array I currently do this:

void Foo( int[] a )
{
    int[] b = new int[ a.Length ];
    for ( int i = 0; i < a.Length; ++i )
        b[ i ] = a[ i ];

    // Other code ...
}

Is there a shorter or more idiomatic way of doing this in C#?

It will be great if this can be done in a single statement, like in C++:

vector<int> b( a );

If this cannot be done in a single statement, I will take what I get 🙂

Answer 1

I like using LINQ for this:

int[] b = a.ToArray();

That being said, Array.Copy does have better performance, if this will be used in a tight loop, etc:

int[] b = new int[a.Length];
Array.Copy(a, b, a.Length);

---

Edit:

It will be great if this can be done in a single statement, like in C++:

vector b( a );

The C# version of this would be:

List<int> b = new List<int>(a);

List<T> is C#’s equivalent to std::vector<T>. The constructor above works with any IEnumerable<T>, including another List<T>, an array (T[]), etc.