Deleting row from DataRow[] in C#

Question

I have a datarow array DataRow[] drRequest with 5 rows. Then i am iterating each row using foreach and deleting rows using

foreach (DataRow dr in drRequest) 
{
    dr.Delete();

but afterwards the drRequest.Length is returning 5 instead of 0.

I can't use Datatable , i need to use DataRow[]

Answer 1

DataRow.Delete doesn't remove this row from the DataTable . It just marks this row as "will be deleted from the datasource if you use a DataAdapter and call dataAdapter.Update". If you want to remove it use Remove :

foreach (DataRow dr in drRequest) 
{
    dr.Table.Rows.Remove(dr);
}

Answer 2

If drRequest really is a DataRow[] , then it will always have length (whatever it was to start with). Arrays never change length . Never. You can null a value out of it, but ... that may not be expected by whatever other code is looking at the array later. This is simply a feature of what arrays are .

You might consider an alternative data structure. For example, you can remove things from a List<T> . But note that behind the scenes this involves a shuffle-down. If you are selectively removing things, then list.RemoveAll(x => {return true to remove, false to keep}); knows how to do this optimally.