automatically expanding array in .NET ?

Question

Does .NET have anything similar to Perl arrays, which are indexed numerically but automatically expand as needed? It would work like this:

var x = new DreamArray<string>();

x[6] = "foo";  // x automatically has 7 elements
x[10] = "bar"; // now it has 11

Answer 1

Use a List<string> instead of an array. You will have to call List.Add("item") to add to the list though.

Answer 2

Lists would be the closest. Just use List()

Answer 3

Hash Tables & ArrayLists are the first 2 things to come to mind. They're not used exactly the same, though you could use a hashtable in a pretty similar manner.

See C# Collections for usage, examples, and more ideas

Answer 4

No but it could be easily emulated with:

class MagicArray<T> : Dictionary<int, T> {}

Answer 5

You could easily write your own. You would have to implement the ICollection interface and then aggregate a standard List, etc. But, in the indexer property, if the index is greater than the Capacity, simply change the Capacity property to the appropriate size.