Why doesn't Array class expose its indexer directly?

Question

something to mention for answering:

1. Don\'t worry about variance, while the item in question is Array rather than

Answer 1

I think one reason why Array doesn't implement that indexer directly is because all the specific array types (like char[]) derive from Array.

What this means is that code like this would be legal:

char[] array = new char[10];
array[0] = new object();

Code like this shouldn't be legal, because it's not type-safe. The following is legal and throws an exception:

char[] array = new char[10];
array.SetValue(new object(), 0);

But SetValue() is not normally used, so this is not a big problem.