The sourceArray and destinationArray parameters must have the same number of dimensions. The sourceArray type must be the same as or derived from the destinationArray type; otherwise, an ArrayTypeMismatchException is thrown. Unlike erload:System.Array.Copy, Array.ConstrainedCopy(Array, int, Array, int, int) verifies the compatibility of the array types before performing any operation.

When copying between multidimensional arrays, the array behaves like a long one-dimensional array, where the rows (or columns) are conceptually laid end-to-end. For example, if an array has three rows (or columns) with four elements each, copying six elements from the beginning of the array would copy all four elements of the first row (or column) and the first two elements of the second row (or column). To start copying from the second element of the third row (or column), sourceIndex must be the upper bound of the first row (or column) plus the length of the second row (or column) plus two.

If sourceArray and destinationArray overlap, this method behaves as if the original values of sourceArray were preserved in a temporary location before destinationArray is overwritten.

[C++]

This method is equivalent to the standard C/C++ function memmove, not memcpy.

The arrays can be reference-type arrays or value-type arrays. If sourceArray and destinationArray are both reference-type arrays or are both arrays of type object, a shallow copy is performed. A shallow copy of an Array is a new Array containing references to the same elements as the original Array. The elements themselves or anything referenced by the elements are not copied. In contrast, a deep copy of an Array copies the elements and everything directly or indirectly referenced by the elements.

If this method throws an exception while copying, the destinationArray remains unchanged; therefore, Array.ConstrainedCopy(Array, int, Array, int, int) can be used within a constrained execution region (System.Runtime.ConstrainedExecution.Cer).

This method is an O(n) operation, where n is length.