ICollection<string> to string[]

Question

i have a generic ICollection. what is the best way to convert to string[]. using dotnet 2.0

Answer 1

You could use the following snippet to convert it to an ordinary array:

string[] array = new string[collection.Size];
collection.CopyTo(array, 0);

That should do the job :)

Answer 2

In the (trivial) case of ICollection<String>, use ToArray:

String[] GetArray(ICollection<String> mycoll)
{
    return mycoll.ToArray<String>();
}

EDIT: with .Net 2.0, you can return the array with an extra List<String>:

String[] GetArray(ICollection<String> mycoll)
{
    List<String> result = new List<String>(mycoll);
    return result.ToArray();
}

Answer 3

If you're using C# 3.0 and .Net framework 3.5, you should be able to do:

ICollection<string> col = new List<string>() { "a","b"};
string[] colArr = col.ToArray();

of course, you must have "using System.Linq;" at the top of the file