Merging two arrays in .NET

Question

Is there a built in function in .NET 2.0 that will take two arrays and merge them into one array?

The arrays are both of the same type. I'm getting these arrays from a widely used function within my code base and can't modify the function to return the data in a different format.

I'm looking to avoid writing my own function to accomplish this if possible.

Answer 1

In C# 3.0 you can use LINQ's Concat method to accomplish this easily:

int[] front = { 1, 2, 3, 4 };
int[] back = { 5, 6, 7, 8 };
int[] combined = front.Concat(back).ToArray();

In C# 2.0 you don't have such a direct way, but Array.Copy is probably the best solution:

int[] front = { 1, 2, 3, 4 };
int[] back = { 5, 6, 7, 8 };

int[] combined = new int[front.Length + back.Length];
Array.Copy(front, combined, front.Length);
Array.Copy(back, 0, combined, front.Length, back.Length);

This could easily be used to implement your own version of Concat.

Answer 2

Use LINQ:

var arr1 = new[] { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };
var arr2 = new[] { 6, 7, 8, 9, 0 };
var arr = arr1.Union(arr2).ToArray();

Keep in mind, this will remove duplicates. If you want to keep duplicates, use Concat.

Answer 3

If you can manipulate one of the arrays, you can resize it before performing the copy:

T[] array1 = getOneArray();
T[] array2 = getAnotherArray();
int array1OriginalLength = array1.Length;
Array.Resize<T>(ref array1, array1OriginalLength + array2.Length);
Array.Copy(array2, 0, array1, array1OriginalLength, array2.Length);

Otherwise, you can make a new array

T[] array1 = getOneArray();
T[] array2 = getAnotherArray();
T[] newArray = new T[array1.Length + array2.Length];
Array.Copy(array1, newArray, array1.Length);
Array.Copy(array2, 0, newArray, array1.Length, array2.Length);

More on available Array methods on MSDN.

Answer 4

If you don't want to remove duplicates, then try this

Use LINQ:

var arr1 = new[] { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };
var arr2 = new[] { 6, 7, 8, 9, 0 };
var arr = arr1.Concat(arr2).ToArray();

Answer 5

First, make sure you ask yourself the question "Should I really be using an Array here"?

Unless you're building something where speed is of the utmost importance, a typed List, like List<int> is probably the way to go. The only time I ever use arrays are for byte arrays when sending stuff over the network. Other than that, I never touch them.

Answer 6

Easier would just be using LINQ:

var array = new string[] { "test" }.ToList();
var array1 = new string[] { "test" }.ToList();
array.AddRange(array1);
var result = array.ToArray();

First convert the arrays to lists and merge them... After that just convert the list back to an array :)

Answer 7

I think you can use Array.Copy for this. It takes a source index and destination index so you should be able to append the one array to the other. If you need to go more complex than just appending one to the other, this may not be the right tool for you.

Answer 8

Everyone has already had their say but I think this more readable than the "use as Extension method" approach:

var arr1 = new[] { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };
var arr2 = new[] { 6, 7, 8, 9, 0 };
var arr = Queryable.Concat(arr1, arr2).ToArray();

However it can only be used when bringing together 2 arrays.

Answer 9

This is what I came up with. Works for a variable number of arrays.

public static T[] ConcatArrays<T>(params T[][] args)
    {
        if (args == null)
            throw new ArgumentNullException();

        var offset = 0;
        var newLength = args.Sum(arr => arr.Length); 
        var newArray = new T[newLength];

        foreach (var arr in args)
        {
            Buffer.BlockCopy(arr, 0, newArray, offset, arr.Length);
            offset += arr.Length;
        }

        return newArray;
    }

...

var header = new byte[] { 0, 1, 2};
var data = new byte[] { 3, 4, 5, 6 };
var checksum = new byte[] {7, 0};
var newArray = ConcatArrays(header, data, checksum);
//output byte[9] { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 0 }

Answer 10

Assuming the destination array has enough space, Array.Copy() will work. You might also try using a List<T> and its .AddRange() method.

Answer 11

Personally, I prefer my own Language Extensions, which I add or remove at will for rapid prototyping.

Following is an example for strings.

//resides in IEnumerableStringExtensions.cs
public static class IEnumerableStringExtensions
{
   public static IEnumerable<string> Append(this string[] arrayInitial, string[] arrayToAppend)
   {
       string[] ret = new string[arrayInitial.Length + arrayToAppend.Length];
       arrayInitial.CopyTo(ret, 0);
       arrayToAppend.CopyTo(ret, arrayInitial.Length);

       return ret;
   }
}

It is much faster than LINQ and Concat. Faster still, is using a custom IEnumerable Type-wrapper which stores references/pointers of passed arrays and allows looping over the entire collection as if it were a normal array. (Useful in HPC, Graphics Processing, Graphics render...)

Your Code:

var someStringArray = new[]{"a", "b", "c"};
var someStringArray2 = new[]{"d", "e", "f"};
someStringArray.Append(someStringArray2 ); //contains a,b,c,d,e,f

For the entire code and a generics version see: https://gist.github.com/lsauer/7919764

Note: This returns an unextended IEnumerable object. To return an extended object is a bit slower.

I compiled such extensions since 2002, with a lot of credits going to helpful people on CodeProject and 'Stackoverflow'. I will release these shortly and put the link up here.

Answer 12

Just to have it noted as an option: if the arrays you are working with are of a primitive type – Boolean (bool), Char, SByte, Byte, Int16 (short), UInt16, Int32 (int), UInt32, Int64 (long), UInt64, IntPtr, UIntPtr, Single, or Double – then you could (or should?) try using Buffer.BlockCopy. According to the MSDN page for the Buffer class:

This class provides better performance for manipulating primitive types than similar methods in the System.Array class.

Using the C# 2.0 example from @OwenP's answer as a starting point, it would work as follows:

int[] front = { 1, 2, 3, 4 };
int[] back = { 5, 6, 7, 8 };

int[] combined = new int[front.Length + back.Length];
Buffer.BlockCopy(front, 0, combined, 0, front.Length);
Buffer.BlockCopy(back, 0, combined, front.Length, back.Length);

There is barely any difference in syntax between Buffer.BlockCopy and the Array.Copy that @OwenP used, but this should be faster (even if only slightly).

Answer 13

I needed a solution to combine an unknown number of arrays.

Surprised nobody else provided a solution using SelectMany with params.

 private static T[] Combine<T>(params IEnumerable<T>[] items) =>
                    items.SelectMany(i => i).Distinct().ToArray();

If you don't want distinct items just remove distinct.

 public string[] Reds = new [] { "Red", "Crimson", "TrafficLightRed" };
 public string[] Greens = new [] { "Green", "LimeGreen" };
 public string[] Blues = new [] { "Blue", "SkyBlue", "Navy" };

 public string[] Colors = Combine(Reds, Greens, Blues);

Note: There is definitely no guarantee of ordering when using distinct.

Answer 14

In case someone else is looking for how to merge two image byte arrays:

        private void LoadImage()
        {
            string src = string.empty;
            byte[] mergedImageData = new byte[0];

            mergedImageData = MergeTwoImageByteArrays(watermarkByteArray, backgroundImageByteArray);
            src = "data:image/png;base64," + Convert.ToBase64String(mergedImageData);
            MyImage.ImageUrl = src;
        }

        private byte[] MergeTwoImageByteArrays(byte[] imageBytes, byte[] imageBaseBytes)
        {
            byte[] mergedImageData = new byte[0];
            using (var msBase = new MemoryStream(imageBaseBytes))
            {
                System.Drawing.Image imgBase = System.Drawing.Image.FromStream(msBase);
                Graphics gBase = Graphics.FromImage(imgBase);
                using (var msInfo = new MemoryStream(imageBytes))
                {
                    System.Drawing.Image imgInfo = System.Drawing.Image.FromStream(msInfo);
                    Graphics gInfo = Graphics.FromImage(imgInfo);
                    gBase.DrawImage(imgInfo, new Point(0, 0));
                    //imgBase.Save(Server.MapPath("_____testImg.png"), ImageFormat.Png);
                    MemoryStream mergedImageStream = new MemoryStream();
                    imgBase.Save(mergedImageStream, ImageFormat.Png);
                    mergedImageData = mergedImageStream.ToArray();
                    mergedImageStream.Close();
                }
            }
            return mergedImageData;
        }

Answer 15

If you have the source arrays in an array itself you can use SelectMany:

var arrays = new[]{new[]{1, 2, 3}, new[]{4, 5, 6}};
var combined = arrays.SelectMany(a => a).ToArray();
foreach (var v in combined) Console.WriteLine(v);   

gives

1
2
3
4
5
6

Probably this is not the fastest method but might fit depending on usecase.

Answer 16

Here is a simple example using Array.CopyTo. I think that it answers your question and gives an example of CopyTo usage - I am always puzzled when I need to use this function because the help is a bit unclear - the index is the position in the destination array where inserting occurs.

int[] xSrc1 = new int[3] { 0, 1, 2 };
int[] xSrc2 = new int[5] { 3, 4, 5, 6 , 7 };

int[] xAll = new int[xSrc1.Length + xSrc2.Length];
xSrc1.CopyTo(xAll, 0);
xSrc2.CopyTo(xAll, xSrc1.Length);

I guess you can't get it much simpler.

Answer 17

int [] SouceArray1 = new int[] {2,1,3};
int [] SourceArray2 = new int[] {4,5,6};
int [] targetArray = new int [SouceArray1.Length + SourceArray2.Length];
SouceArray1.CopyTo(targetArray,0);
SourceArray2.CopyTo(targetArray,SouceArray1.Length) ; 
foreach (int i in targetArray) Console.WriteLine(i + " ");  

Using the above code two Arrays can be easily merged.

Answer 18

Created and extension method to handle null

public static class IEnumerableExtenions
{
    public static IEnumerable<T> UnionIfNotNull<T>(this IEnumerable<T> list1, IEnumerable<T> list2)
    {
        if (list1 != null && list2 != null)
            return list1.Union(list2);
        else if (list1 != null)
            return list1;
        else if (list2 != null)
            return list2;
        else return null;
    }
}

Answer 19

I'm assuming you're using your own array types as opposed to the built-in .NET arrays:

public string[] merge(input1, input2)
{
    string[] output = new string[input1.length + input2.length];
    for(int i = 0; i < output.length; i++)
    {
        if (i >= input1.length)
            output[i] = input2[i-input1.length];
        else
            output[i] = input1[i];
    }
    return output;
}

Another way of doing this would be using the built in ArrayList class.

public ArrayList merge(input1, input2)
{
    Arraylist output = new ArrayList();
    foreach(string val in input1)
        output.add(val);
    foreach(string val in input2)
        output.add(val);
    return output;
}

Both examples are C#.

Answer 20

string[] names1 = new string[] { "Ava", "Emma", "Olivia" };
string[] names2 = new string[] { "Olivia", "Sophia", "Emma" };
List<string> arr = new List<string>(names1.Length + names2.Length);
arr.AddRange(names1);
arr.AddRange(names2);
string[] result = arr.Distinct().ToArray();
foreach(string str in result)
{
    Console.WriteLine(str.ToString());
}

Console.ReadLine();

Answer 21

I wanted to find an approach without using any libraries or functionality beyond arrays themselves.

The first two examples are mostly for reading the logic from scratch, but I also wonder if there could be performance variations depending on the sitaution.

The third example is the most practical choice.

// Two for-loops
private static int[] MergedArrays_1(int[] a, int[] b)
{
    int[] result = new int[a.Length + b.Length];
    for (int i = 0; i < a.Length; i++)
    {
        result[i] = a[i];
    }
    for (int i = a.Length; i < result.Length; i++)
    {
        result[i] = b[i - a.Length];
    }
    return result;
}

// One for-loop
private static int[] MergedArrays_2(int[] a, int[] b)
{
    int[] results = new int[a.Length + b.Length];
    for (int i = 0; i < results.Length; i++)
    {
        results[i] = (i < a.Length) ? a[i] : b[i - a.Length];
    }
    return results;
}

// Array Method
private static int[] MergedArrays_3(int[] a, int[] b)
{
    int[] results = new int[a.Length + b.Length];
    a.CopyTo(results, 0);
    b.CopyTo(results, a.Length);
    return results;
}

Lastly, I made a fourth example, that can merge multiple arrays, using the params keyword.

int[] result = MultipleMergedArrays(arrayOne, arrayTwo, arrayThree);

private static int[] MultipleMergedArrays(params int[][] a)
{
    // Get Length
    int resultsLength = 0;
    for (int row = 0; row < a.GetLength(0); row++)
    {
        resultsLength += a.Length;
    }

    // Initialize
    int[] results = new int[resultsLength];

    // Add Items
    int index = 0;
    for (int row = 0; row < a.GetLength(0); row++)
    {
        a[row].CopyTo(results, index);
        index += a[row].Length;
    }
    return results;
}

The way it works when using params, is that the single-dimension arrays are passed into a jagged array.

GetLength(0) returns the number of arrays contained within the jagged array.

The code first counts the Length of all the arrays, then it initializes a new array based on that size, and starts adding entire arrays into the new results array by using the CopyTo() method, while adding the Length of each added array to an index counter.

PS: Some times it is necessary to remove empty items, or certain items, from arrays when merging.

private static int[] RemoveEmpty(int[] array)
{
    int count = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i < array.Length; i++)
    {
        if (array[i] == 0) count++;
    }

    int[] result = new int[array.Length - count];

    count = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i < array.Length; i++)
    {
        if (array[i] == 0) continue;
        result[count] = array[i];
        count++;
    }

    return result;
}

This function can be combined with the ones above.

It takes an array, counts the number of items that match zero. And creates a new array of the proper size. Then the counter is recycled and used as an index, for where to put place the input array's values into the new and smaller result array. When an item matches zero, it skips the rest of the code in that round of the loop, and continues with the next round, without incrementing the integer counter.

Answer 22

Since .NET 5, we now have AllocateUninitializedArray which can possibly add an additional (small) performance improvement for the suggested solutions:

public static T[] ConcatArrays<T>(IEnumerable<T[]> arrays)
{
    var result = GC.AllocateUninitializedArray<T>(arrays.Sum(a => a.Length));
    var offset = 0;
    foreach (var a in arrays)
    {
        a.CopyTo(result, offset);
        offset += a.Length;
    }
    return result;
}

Answer 23

For an efficient solution, you might try this one:

        //
    ///<summary>Join two arrays together. At least one array must exist.</summary>
    public static T[] Append<T>( this T[] a1, T[] a2 ) {
        if ( null == a1 && null == a2 ) return null;
        int l1 = 0;
        if ( null != a1 ) l1 = a1.Length;
        int l2 = 0;
        if ( null != a2 ) l2 = a2.Length;
        var b = new T[ l1 + l2 ];
        if ( null != a1 ) Array.Copy( a1, b, l1 );
        if ( null != a2 ) Array.Copy( a2, 0, b, l1, l2 );
        return b;
    }

Answer 24

This code will work for all cases:

int[] a1 ={3,4,5,6};
int[] a2 = {4,7,9};
int i = a1.Length-1;
int j = a2.Length-1;
int resultIndex=  i+j+1;
Array.Resize(ref a2, a1.Length +a2.Length);
while(resultIndex >=0)
{
    if(i != 0 && j !=0)
    {
        if(a1[i] > a2[j])
        {
            a2[resultIndex--] = a[i--];
        }
        else
        {
            a2[resultIndex--] = a[j--];
        }
    }
    else if(i>=0 && j<=0)
    { 
        a2[resultIndex--] = a[i--];
    }
    else if(j>=0 && i <=0)
    {
       a2[resultIndex--] = a[j--];
    }
}

Answer 25

Simple code to join multiple arrays:

string[] arr1 = ...
string[] arr2 = ...
string[] arr3 = ...    
List<string> arr = new List<string>(arr1.Length + arr2.Length + arr3.Length);
arr.AddRange(arr1);
arr.AddRange(arr2);
arr.AddRange(arr3);
string[] result = arr.ToArray();

Answer 26

There is another way to do this, that does not require any additional references to internal libraries (expect of course System.Collections.Generic)

public static IEnumerable<T> Merge<T>(IEnumerable<T> first, 
                                           IEnumerable<T> second)
{
    foreach(var e in first)
        yield return e;
    foreach(var e in second)
        yield return e;
}

This solution is more universal because of the fact that it uses IEnumerable<T>, it means that it can merge elements from any two iterators, and returns a third iterator which contains elements from first and second one.

Here is snippet of example usage.

Answer 27

Try this:

ArrayLIst al = new ArrayList();
al.AddRange(array_1);
al.AddRange(array_2);
al.AddRange(array_3);
array_4 = al.ToArray();