.Net - Frequently Asked Questions

System.Array.CopyTo VS. System.Array.Clone()

Both System.Array.CopyTo and System.Array.Clone() are methods in C# that allow you to create a copy of an array, but they have some important differences.

System.Array.CopyTo

  1. CopyTo is a void method that copies the elements of an array to another array or a section of it.
  2. It requires a destination array to be provided as a parameter, and the elements from the source array are copied to the destination array starting from the specified index.
  3. It performs a shallow copy, which means that if the elements in the source array are reference types, the references are copied rather than creating new instances of the objects.
  4. The destination array must have sufficient capacity to accommodate the copied elements.
Example:
int[] sourceArray = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 }; int[] destinationArray = new int[5]; sourceArray.CopyTo(destinationArray, 0);

System.Array.Clone()

  1. Clone() is a method that creates a shallow copy of the array.
  2. It returns a new array object that is a replica of the original array, with the same length and containing the same elements.
  3. It performs a shallow copy, just like CopyTo, where the references to the objects are copied instead of creating new instances.
  4. The returned array is a separate object in memory, independent of the original array.
Example:
int[] originalArray = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 }; int[] clonedArray = (int[])originalArray.Clone();

While both CopyTo and Clone() create copies of an array, CopyTo requires a destination array to be provided and performs the copy operation, while Clone() creates a new array object with the same elements as the original array. Both methods perform shallow copies, meaning they copy references to objects rather than creating new instances.