Programming Visual Basic .NET, Second Edition

System.Array

VB.NET implements arrays with the class System.Array. The Array class has a number of useful methods. Table 9-1 shows a few of the more important methods and properties of the System.Array class.

Table 9-1.  Useful methods and properties of System.Array

Method or property	Description
Clear( )	Public shared method that sets a range of elements in the array to zero or to a null reference
Copy( )	Overloaded public shared method that copies a section of one array to another array
IndexOf( )	Overloaded public shared method that returns the index (offset) of the first instance of a value in a one-dimensional array
IsFixedSize	Public property that returns a value indicating whether the array has a fixed size
LastIndexOf( )	Overloaded public shared method that returns the index of the last instance of a value in a one-dimensional array
Length	Public property that returns the length of the array
Reverse( )	Overloaded public shared method that reverses the order of the elements in a one-dimensional array
Rank	Public property that returns the number of dimensions of the array
Sort( )	Overloaded public shared method that sorts the values in a one-dimensional array

The Array class’s shared methods, Reverse( ) and Sort( ), make manipulation of the objects within the array very easy. Note, however, that to reverse or sort the elements of the array, they must be of a type that implements the IComparable interface, described in Chapter 8. The ...