Does an empty array in .NET use any space?

Question

I have some code where I\'m returning an array of objects.

Here\'s a simplified example:

string[] GetTheStuff() {
    List s = null;
             


        

Answer 1

I would guess that an empty array uses only the space needed to allocate the object pointer itself.

From memory the API guidelines say that you should always return an empty array from a method that returns an array rather than returning null, so I'd leave your code the way it is regardless. That way the caller knows he's guaranteed to get an array (even an empty one) and need not check for null with each call.

Edit: A link about returning empty arrays:

http://wesnerm.blogs.com/net_undocumented/2004/02/empty_arrays.html