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Type.GetElementType Method

Definition

When overridden in a derived class, returns the Type of the object encompassed or referred to by the current array, pointer or reference type.

C#
public abstract Type GetElementType();
C#
public abstract Type? GetElementType();

Returns

The Type of the object encompassed or referred to by the current array, pointer, or reference type, or null if the current Type is not an array or a pointer, or is not passed by reference, or represents a generic type or a type parameter in the definition of a generic type or generic method.

Implements

Examples

The following example demonstrates using the GetElementType method.

C#
using System;
class TestGetElementType
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        int[] array = {1,2,3};
        Type t = array.GetType();
        Type t2 = t.GetElementType();
        Console.WriteLine("The element type of {0} is {1}.",array, t2.ToString());
        TestGetElementType newMe = new TestGetElementType();
        t = newMe.GetType();
        t2 = t.GetElementType();
        Console.WriteLine("The element type of {0} is {1}.", newMe, t2==null? "null" : t2.ToString());
    }
}

/* This code produces the following output:

The element type of System.Int32[] is System.Int32.
The element type of TestGetElementType is null.
 */

Remarks

This method returns null for the Array class.

Applies to

Product Versions
.NET Core 1.0, Core 1.1, Core 2.0, Core 2.1, Core 2.2, Core 3.0, Core 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
.NET Framework 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
.NET Standard 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, 2.1
UWP 10.0

See also