obtain generic enumerator from an array

Question

In C#, how does one obtain a generic enumerator from a given array?

In the code below, MyArray is an array of MyType objects. I\'d like to

Answer 1

    MyType[] arr = { new MyType(), new MyType(), new MyType() };

    IEnumerable<MyType> enumerable = arr;

    IEnumerator<MyType> en = enumerable.GetEnumerator();

    foreach (MyType item in enumerable)
    {

    }

Answer 2

Works on 2.0+:

((IEnumerable<MyType>)myArray).GetEnumerator()

Works on 3.5+ (fancy LINQy, a bit less efficient):

myArray.Cast<MyType>().GetEnumerator()   // returns IEnumerator<MyType>

Answer 3

Since I don't like casting, a little update:

your_array.AsEnumerable().GetEnumerator();

Answer 4

What you can do, of course, is just implement your own generic enumerator for arrays.

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;

namespace SomeNamespace
{
    public class ArrayEnumerator<T> : IEnumerator<T>
    {
        public ArrayEnumerator(T[] arr)
        {
            collection = arr;
            length = arr.Length;
        }
        private readonly T[] collection;
        private int index = -1;
        private readonly int length;

        public T Current { get { return collection[index]; } }

        object IEnumerator.Current { get { return Current; } }

        public bool MoveNext() { index++; return index < length; }

        public void Reset() { index = -1; }

        public void Dispose() {/* Nothing to dispose. */}
    }
}

This is more or less equal to the .NET implemenation of SZGenericArrayEnumerator<T> as mentioned by Glenn Slayden. You should of course only do this, is cases where this is worth the effort. In most cases it is not.

Answer 5

YourArray.OfType().GetEnumerator();

may perform a little better, since it only has to check the type, and not cast.

Answer 6

To Make it as clean as possible I like to let the compiler do all of the work. There are no casts (so its actually type-safe). No third party Libraries (System.Linq) are used (No runtime overhead).

    public static IEnumerable<T> GetEnumerable<T>(this T[] arr)
    {
        return arr;
    }

// And to use the code:

    String[] arr = new String[0];
    arr.GetEnumerable().GetEnumerator()

This takes advantage of some compiler magic that keeps everything clean.

The other point to note is that my answer is the only answer that will do compile-time checking.

For any of the other solutions if the type of "arr" changes, then calling code will compile, and fail at runtime, resulting in a runtime bug.

My answer will cause the code to not compile and therefore I have less chance of shipping a bug in my code, as it would signal to me that I am using the wrong type.