Array Length in C#

As you know in C# you can query the length of the array with Length property, but it’s not so obvious, in c++ for example you allocate the array to the size you want but the length is unknown after the allocation.

My question is, how in C# the language can tell you the length of the array, or to ask this question in another way, where does C# save the array length, my first guess was that the first item in an array is the array length, I decide to go and search for it. First I tried to search in the first item:

  static void Main(string[] args)
  {
    int[] array = new int[6];
 
    array[0] = 0;
    array[1] = 1;
    array[2] = 2;
    array[3] = 3;
    array[4] = 4;
 
    var handle = GCHandle.Alloc(array, GCHandleType.Pinned);
 
    IntPtr address = handle.AddrOfPinnedObject();
 
    int value = Marshal.ReadInt32(address);
    Console.WriteLine(value);
 
    address += 4;
    value = Marshal.ReadInt32(address);
    Console.WriteLine(value);
 
    address += 4;
    value = Marshal.ReadInt32(address);
    Console.WriteLine(value);
 
    address += 4;
    value = Marshal.ReadInt32(address);
    Console.WriteLine(value);
 
    address += 4;
    value = Marshal.ReadInt32(address);
    Console.WriteLine(value);
 
    handle.Free();
 
    Console.ReadLine();
  }

And the output:

So you can see my guess was wrong, the first item is actually the first item.

Then I tried the 7 item (last + 1), which make no sense because it’s has to be the first otherwise the language won’t know where to search for it.

Finally I tried to search before the first item which actually prove right:

  static void Main(string[] args)
  {
    int[] array = new int[6];
 
    array[0] = 0;
    array[1] = 1;
    array[2] = 2;
    array[3] = 3;
    array[4] = 4;
 
    var handle = GCHandle.Alloc(array, GCHandleType.Pinned);
 
    IntPtr address = handle.AddrOfPinnedObject();
 
    int value = Marshal.ReadInt32(address-4);
    Console.WriteLine(value);
 
    value = Marshal.ReadInt32(address);
    Console.WriteLine(value);
 
    address += 4;
    value = Marshal.ReadInt32(address);
    Console.WriteLine(value);
 
    address += 4;
    value = Marshal.ReadInt32(address);
    Console.WriteLine(value);
 
    address += 4;
    value = Marshal.ReadInt32(address);
    Console.WriteLine(value);
 
    address += 4;
    value = Marshal.ReadInt32(address);
    Console.WriteLine(value);
 
    handle.Free();
 
    Console.ReadLine();
  }

And the output was:

To summarize C# save the length of the array one item before the first item of the array (or 4 bytes before the beginning of the array).
Which actually make the size of the array num_of_items * size_of_item + 4 (which is size of integer holding the array size).