Merging two arrays in .NET Merging two arrays in .NET arrays arrays

Merging two arrays in .NET


In C# 3.0 you can use LINQ's Concat method to accomplish this easily:

int[] front = { 1, 2, 3, 4 };int[] back = { 5, 6, 7, 8 };int[] combined = front.Concat(back).ToArray();

In C# 2.0 you don't have such a direct way, but Array.Copy is probably the best solution:

int[] front = { 1, 2, 3, 4 };int[] back = { 5, 6, 7, 8 };int[] combined = new int[front.Length + back.Length];Array.Copy(front, combined, front.Length);Array.Copy(back, 0, combined, front.Length, back.Length);

This could easily be used to implement your own version of Concat.


If you can manipulate one of the arrays, you can resize it before performing the copy:

T[] array1 = getOneArray();T[] array2 = getAnotherArray();int array1OriginalLength = array1.Length;Array.Resize<T>(ref array1, array1OriginalLength + array2.Length);Array.Copy(array2, 0, array1, array1OriginalLength, array2.Length);

Otherwise, you can make a new array

T[] array1 = getOneArray();T[] array2 = getAnotherArray();T[] newArray = new T[array1.Length + array2.Length];Array.Copy(array1, newArray, array1.Length);Array.Copy(array2, 0, newArray, array1.Length, array2.Length);

More on available Array methods on MSDN.


Use LINQ:

var arr1 = new[] { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };var arr2 = new[] { 6, 7, 8, 9, 0 };var arr = arr1.Union(arr2).ToArray();

Keep in mind, this will remove duplicates. If you want to keep duplicates, use Concat.