How to get a sub array of array in Java, without copying data?

Question

I have some library of classes, working with my data, which is being read into buffer. Is it possible somehow to avoid copying arrays again and again, passing parts of data

Answer 1

Perhaps instead of working with arrays you should work with a different type that maintains a reference to a slice of the original array, instead of copying the data over, similar to ArraySegment in C#. An additional benefit to this is that you can also shift the slice over the original array on-demand, without creating new instances. Pseudo code:

public class ArraySegment implements Iterable 
{
      private int from, to;
      private T[] original;
      
      public ArraySegment(T[] original, int from, int to)
      {
          //constructor stuff
      }

      public T get(int index)
      {
           return original[index + from];
      }

      public int size()
      {
          return to - from + 1;
      }
      
      @Override
      public Iterator iterator()
      {
          //Iterator that iterates over the slice
      }

      //Can support setters on from/to variables
}