What is an indexer in c#?| Indexer in c#| c# indexer

 What is an indexer in c#?

In C#, an indexer is a special type of property that allows instances of a class or struct to be indexed like arrays. It provides a way to access elements of a collection or other data structure using square brackets, just like you would with an array.

To define an indexer, you can use the "this" keyword followed by square brackets and the parameter list for the indexer. Here is an example of an indexer that provides access to a collection of strings:

class StringCollection

{

    private List<string> items = new List<string>();

    public string this[int index]

    {

        get

        {

            return items[index];

        }

        set

        {

            items[index] = value;

        }

    }

}

In this example, the "StringCollection" class has an indexer that takes an integer index and returns or sets the corresponding string in the "items" collection.

You can use the indexer like this:

StringCollection collection = new StringCollection();

collection[0] = "Hello";

collection[1] = "World";

Console.WriteLine(collection[0]); // outputs "Hello"

Console.WriteLine(collection[1]); // outputs "World"

Note that the indexer behaves like a property and can have any access modifiers (public, private, protected, etc.) and other property features (such as read-only or write-only).

Indexers are commonly used in C# to provide access to collections or other data structures that are not arrays. They provide a convenient and consistent way to access elements of a collection or other data structure, making it easier to work with complex data in your code.