Merging two arrays in .NET

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.

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.

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.

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.

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();