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

This is not a direct answer to your question.

Read why arrays are considered somewhat harmful. I would suggest you to return an IList in this case and restructure the code a little bit:

IList GetTheStuff() {
    List s = new List();
    if( somePredicate() ) {
        // imagine we load some data or something
    }
    return s;
}

In this way the caller doesn't have to care about empty return values.

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EDIT: If the returned list should not be editable you can wrap the List inside a ReadOnlyCollection. Simply change the last line to. I also would consider this best practice.

    return new ReadOnlyCollection(s);