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c#arraysstruct
Adam Tegen
Adam Tegen

Reputation: 25887

Initializing an Array of Structs in C#

How can I initialize a const / static array of structs as clearly as possible?

class SomeClass
{

    struct MyStruct
    {
        public string label;
        public int id;
    };

    const MyStruct[] MyArray = {
          {"a", 1}
          {"b", 5}
          {"q", 29}
    };
};

Upvotes: 55

Views: 159262

Answers (5)

Jon Skeet
Jon Skeet

Reputation: 1500495

Firstly, do you really have to have a mutable struct? They're almost always a bad idea. Likewise public fields. There are some very occasional contexts in which they're reasonable (usually both parts together, as with ValueTuple) but they're pretty rare in my experience.

Other than that, I'd just create a constructor taking the two bits of data:

class SomeClass
{

    struct MyStruct
    {
        private readonly string label;
        private readonly int id;

        public MyStruct (string label, int id)
        {
            this.label = label;
            this.id = id;
        }

        public string Label { get { return label; } }
        public string Id { get { return id; } }

    }

    static readonly IList<MyStruct> MyArray = new ReadOnlyCollection<MyStruct>
        (new[] {
             new MyStruct ("a", 1),
             new MyStruct ("b", 5),
             new MyStruct ("q", 29)
        });
}

Note the use of ReadOnlyCollection instead of exposing the array itself - this will make it immutable, avoiding the problem exposing arrays directly. (The code show does initialize an array of structs - it then just passes the reference to the constructor of ReadOnlyCollection<>.)

Upvotes: 56

Shreevardhan
Shreevardhan

Reputation: 12641

Change const to static readonly and initialise it like this

static readonly MyStruct[] MyArray = new[] {
    new MyStruct { label = "a", id = 1 },
    new MyStruct { label = "b", id = 5 },
    new MyStruct { label = "q", id = 29 }
};

Upvotes: 3

Paul Sonier
Paul Sonier

Reputation: 39480

I'd use a static constructor on the class that sets the value of a static readonly array.

public class SomeClass
{
   public readonly MyStruct[] myArray;

   public static SomeClass()
   {
      myArray = { {"foo", "bar"},
                  {"boo", "far"}};
   }
}

Upvotes: -3

Ali Ers&#246;z
Ali Ers&#246;z

Reputation: 16086

You cannot initialize reference types by default other than null. You have to make them readonly. So this could work;

    readonly MyStruct[] MyArray = new MyStruct[]{
      new MyStruct{ label = "a", id = 1},
      new MyStruct{ label = "b", id = 5},
      new MyStruct{ label = "c", id = 1}
    };

Upvotes: 7

Winston Smith
Winston Smith

Reputation: 21882

Are you using C# 3.0? You can use object initializers like so:

static MyStruct[] myArray = 
            new MyStruct[]{
                new MyStruct() { id = 1, label = "1" },
                new MyStruct() { id = 2, label = "2" },
                new MyStruct() { id = 3, label = "3" }
            };

Upvotes: 29

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