Unsafe Code Sample

This sample demonstrates how to use unmanaged code (code that uses pointers) in C#.

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  • On the Help menu, click Samples.

    The Readme displays information about samples.

  • Visit the Visual Studio 2008 Samples Web site. The most recent versions of samples are available there.

  • Locate samples on the computer on which Visual Studio is installed. By default, samples and a Readme file are installed in drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Samples\lcid. For Express editions of Visual Studio, all samples are located online.

For more information, see Visual Studio Samples.

Security Note:
This sample code is intended to illustrate a concept, and it shows only the code that is relevant to that concept. It may not meet the security requirements for a specific environment, and it should not be used exactly as shown. We recommend that you add security and error-handling code to make your projects more secure and robust. Microsoft provides this sample code "AS IS" with no warranties.

To build and run the Unsafe Code samples within Visual Studio

1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the FastCopy project, and click Set as StartUp Project.

2. On the Debug menu, click Start Without Debugging.

3. In Solution Explorer, right-click the ReadFile project, and then click Set as StartUp Project.

4. In Solution Explorer, right-click the ReadFile project, and then click Properties.

5. Open the Configuration Properties folder, and then click Debug.

6. In the Command Line Arguments property, type ..\..\ReadFile.cs.

7. Click OK.

8. On the Debug menu, click Start Without Debugging.

9. In Solution Explorer, right-click the PrintVersion project, and then click Set as StartUp Project.

10. On the Debug menu, click Start Without Debugging.

To build and run the Unsafe Code samples from a command prompt

1. Use the Change Directory command to change to the Unsafe directory.

2. Type the following:

   cd FastCopy
   csc FastCopy.cs /unsafe
   FastCopy
   

3. Type the following:

   cd ..\ReadFile
   csc ReadFile.cs /unsafe
   ReadFile ReadFile.cs
   

4. Type the following:

   cd ..\PrintVersion
   csc PrintVersion.cs /unsafe
   PrintVersion
   

See Also

Tasks

How to: Use Pointers to Copy an Array of Bytes (C# Programming Guide)

How to: Use the Windows ReadFile Function (C# Programming Guide)

Concepts

Visual C# Samples

C# Programming Guide