Clear array of strings

Question

What is the easiest way to clear an array of strings?

clear an array? what do you mean be clear?

Itay Karo
– Itay Karo

2010-09-26 12:45:58 +00:00
Commented Sep 26, 2010 at 12:45 — Itay Karo
– Itay Karo, Commented Sep 26, 2010 at 12:45

Jon Skeet · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-26 12:52:14Z

46

Have you tried Array.Clear?

string[] foo = ...;
Array.Clear(foo, 0, foo.Length);

Note that this won't change the size of the array - nothing will do that. Instead, it will set each element to null.

If you need something which can actually change size, use a List<string> instead:

List<string> names = new List<string> { "Jon", "Holly", "Tom" };
names.Clear(); // After this, names will be genuinely empty (Count==0)

edited Sep 26, 2010 at 12:52

answered Sep 26, 2010 at 12:45

Jon Skeet

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3 Comments

user404651 Over a year ago

Thanks! I couldn't understand why I couldn't find clear under string methods. The answer, of course, is that it's an array method.

Paul C Over a year ago

I should probably know this by now but if you just set the string array to null does that free up the memory or do you have to call Array.Clear ?

Jon Skeet Over a year ago

@CodeBlend: Neither. You don't set an array to null - you set a variable to null. When there are no live references to the array, it will be eligible for garbage collection (but won't be immediately GC'd). If there are elements within that array which are only referred to by that array, they're eligible for garbage collection too.

Guffa · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-26 12:45:40Z

9

Array.Clear(theArray, 0, theArray.Length);

answered Sep 26, 2010 at 12:45

Guffa

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1 Comment

Jon Skeet Over a year ago

That won't compile - Clear isn't an instance method, and it isn't parameterless either.

Henk Holterman · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-26 15:57:08Z

2

It depends on circumstance (like: what is in the array) but the best method usually is to create a new one. Dropping all references to the old one.

 MyType[] array = ...
 ....

 array = new MyType[size];

edited Sep 26, 2010 at 15:57

answered Sep 26, 2010 at 13:30

Henk Holterman

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Comments

Netferret · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-28 17:09:37Z

2

I think you can also get away with this for example: SearchTerm = new string[]{};

answered Jan 28, 2014 at 17:09

Netferret

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江明哲 · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-02 01:12:13Z

0

You can try this.

result = result.Where(x => !string.IsNullOrEmpty(x)).ToArray();

answered Sep 2, 2019 at 1:12

江明哲

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Sryn · Accepted Answer · 2024-01-02 06:00:38Z

0

Intellicode showed me to use

aStringArray = Array.Empty<string>();

answered Jan 2, 2024 at 6:00

Sryn

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Johan · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-07 19:25:18Z

-2

string[] foo;

foo = string[""];

answered Aug 7, 2013 at 19:25

Johan

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atix · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-12 20:11:08Z

-2

how about

string[] foo;
foo = null;

answered Apr 12, 2017 at 20:11

atix

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