C# Generics - array?

Question

Hello,

How to redo the declaration of that C++ template function in C#?

    template <class type>
void ReadArray(type * array, unsigned short count)
{
 int s = sizeof(type) * count;
 if(index + s > size)
  throw(std::exception("Error 102"));
 memcpy(array, stream + index, s);
 index += s;
}

When called,it append bytes/word/(type) in the given array by reading a stream(stream) at a specific position(index).

I tried to redo the declaration like this,but i get an error

    public static T void ReadArray(<T> Array inputarray) // error
    {
        ...
    }

Thanks!

Another conservative question - how to append the bytes into that array(memcpy()),should i use a pointer?

Answer 1

public static void ReadArray<T>(T[] inputarray)
    {
        ...
    }

To append to an array you should covert it to a List

List<T> list = new List<T>();
list.AddRange(inputarray);
list.AddRange(anotherArray);

Answer 2

You use it like this:

public static void ReadArray<T>(T[] inputArray) {
   ...
}

You can use the Array.Copy method to copy data between arrays.

Edit:
If you want to make a "blind copy" of data between different data types, e.g. byte array to long array, that's not something that you can do using safe code. You can use the BitConverter class for example to convert eight bytes from an array into a long. You could also use unsafe code with pointers to do the "blind copy", but you should save that until you actually run into performance problems using safe methods.