Creating an array within a structure

Question

How can I create a string or char array of a fixed length within a structure. Every thing I try generates an array size error.

Alan · Answer

Instance fields within a struct cannot be initialized 'in situ'. They're normally initialized in the constructor so you could do something like this to create a char[] of a given size: using System; class Test { static void Main() { char[] myArray = new char[]{'H' 'e' 'l' 'l' 'o'}; MyStruct ms = new MyStruct(myArray); Console.WriteLine(new string(ms.MyArray)); Console.ReadLine(); } struct MyStruct { private char[] myArray; public char[] MyArray { get {return myArray; } } public MyStruct(char[] ca) { myArray = ca; } } } Notice though that you can't fix the size of the char[] field in advance. myArray could be assigned an array of any size. Similarly with string fields you can't fix the length in advance. They can be assigned a string of any length. The only exception to this is if you're using C# 2.0 (or later) in 'unsafe' mode (for interop say). You can then use a fixed size char buffer as explained here: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zycewsya(VS.80).aspx