Passing by reference to n-th element in C#

Question

In C, if we have an array, we can pass it by reference to a function. We can also use simple addition of (n-1) to pass the reference starting from n-th element of the array like this:

char *strArr[5];
char *str1 = "I want that!\n";
char *str2 = "I want this!\n";
char *str3 = "I want those!\n";
char *str4 = "I want these!\n";
char *str5 = "I want them!\n";
strArr[0] = str1;
strArr[1] = str2;
strArr[2] = str3;
strArr[3] = str4;
strArr[4] = str5;
printPartially(strArr + 1, 4); //we can pass like this to start printing from 2nd element

....

void printPartially(char** strArrPart, char size){
int i;
for (i = 0; i < size; ++i)
    printf(strArrPart[i]);
}

Resulting in these:

I want this!
I want those!
I want these!
I want them!

Process returned 0 (0x0)   execution time : 0.006 s
Press any key to continue.

In C#, we can also pass reference to an object by ref (or, out). The object includes array, which is the whole array (or at least, this is how I suppose it works). But how are we to pass by reference to the n-th element of the array such that internal to the function, there is only string[] whose elements are one less than the original string[] without the need to create new array?

Must we use unsafe? I am looking for a solution (if possible) without unsafe

Edit:

I understand that we could pass Array in C# without ref keyword. Perhaps my question sounds quite misleading by mentioning ref when we talk about Array. The point why I put ref there, I should rather put it this way: is the ref keyword can be used, say, to pass the reference to n-th element of the array as much as C does other than passing reference to any object (without mentioning the n-th element or something alike)? My apology for any misunderstanding occurs by my question's phrasing.

Answer 1

Edit:

You won't be able to do it as you do in C in safe code.

A C# array (i.e. string[]) is derived from abstract type Array. It is not only a simple memory block as it is in C.

So you can't send one of it's element's reference and start iterate from there.

---

But there are some solutions which will give you the same taste of course (without unsafe):

Like:

• As @Chris mentioned you can use ArraySegment<T>.
• As Array is also an IEnumerable<T> you can use .Skip and send the returned value. (but this will give you an IEnumerable<T> instead of an Array). But it will allow you iterate.
• etc...