System.Array serves as the base class for all arrays in the Common Language Runtime (CLR). According to this article,
For each concrete array type, [the] runtime adds three special methods: Get/Set/Address.
and indeed if I disassemble this C# code,
int[,] x = new int[1024,1024];
x[0,0] = 1;
x[1,1] = 2;
x[2,2] = 3;
Console.WriteLine(x[0,0]);
Console.WriteLine(x[1,1]);
Console.WriteLine(x[2,2]);
into CIL I get,
IL_0000: ldc.i4 0x400
IL_0005: ldc.i4 0x400
IL_000a: newobj instance void int32[0...,0...]::.ctor(int32,
int32)
IL_000f: stloc.0
IL_0010: ldloc.0
IL_0011: ldc.i4.0
IL_0012: ldc.i4.0
IL_0013: ldc.i4.1
IL_0014: call instance void int32[0...,0...]::Set(int32,
int32,
int32)
IL_0019: ldloc.0
IL_001a: ldc.i4.1
IL_001b: ldc.i4.1
IL_001c: ldc.i4.2
IL_001d: call instance void int32[0...,0...]::Set(int32,
int32,
int32)
IL_0022: ldloc.0
IL_0023: ldc.i4.2
IL_0024: ldc.i4.2
IL_0025: ldc.i4.3
IL_0026: call instance void int32[0...,0...]::Set(int32,
int32,
int32)
IL_002b: ldloc.0
IL_002c: ldc.i4.0
IL_002d: ldc.i4.0
IL_002e: call instance int32 int32[0...,0...]::Get(int32,
int32)
IL_0033: call void [mscorlib]System.Console::WriteLine(int32)
IL_0038: ldloc.0
IL_0039: ldc.i4.1
IL_003a: ldc.i4.1
IL_003b: call instance int32 int32[0...,0...]::Get(int32,
int32)
IL_0040: call void [mscorlib]System.Console::WriteLine(int32)
IL_0045: ldloc.0
IL_0046: ldc.i4.2
IL_0047: ldc.i4.2
IL_0048: call instance int32 int32[0...,0...]::Get(int32,
int32)
IL_004d: call void [mscorlib]System.Console::WriteLine(int32)
where the calls to the aforementioned Get and Set methods can be clearly seen. It seems the arity of these methods is related to the dimensionality of the array, which is presumably why they are created by the runtime and are not pre-declared. I couldn't locate any information about these methods on MSDN and their simple names makes them resistant to Googling. I'm writing a compiler for a language which supports multidimensional arrays, so I'd like to find some official documentation about these methods, under what conditions I can expect them to exist and what I can expect their signatures to be.
In particular, I'd like to know whether its possible to get a MethodInfo object for Get or Set for use with Reflection.Emit without having to create an instance of the array with correct type and dimensionality on which to reflect, as is done in the linked example.
