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title Unsafe Code and Pointers (C# Programming Guide)
ms.date 07/20/2015
ms.prod .net
ms.technology
devlang-csharp
ms.topic article
helpviewer_keywords
security [C#], type safety
C# language, unsafe code
type safety [C#]
unsafe keyword [C#]
unsafe code [C#]
C# language, pointers
pointers [C#], about pointers
ms.assetid b0fcca10-a92d-4f2a-835b-b0ccae6739ee
caps.latest.revision 24
author BillWagner
ms.author wiwagn

Unsafe Code and Pointers (C# Programming Guide)

To maintain type safety and security, C# does not support pointer arithmetic, by default. However, by using the unsafe keyword, you can define an unsafe context in which pointers can be used. For more information about pointers, see the topic Pointer types.

Note

In the common language runtime (CLR), unsafe code is referred to as unverifiable code. Unsafe code in C# is not necessarily dangerous; it is just code whose safety cannot be verified by the CLR. The CLR will therefore only execute unsafe code if it is in a fully trusted assembly. If you use unsafe code, it is your responsibility to ensure that your code does not introduce security risks or pointer errors.

Unsafe Code Overview

Unsafe code has the following properties:

  • Methods, types, and code blocks can be defined as unsafe.

  • In some cases, unsafe code may increase an application's performance by removing array bounds checks.

  • Unsafe code is required when you call native functions that require pointers.

  • Using unsafe code introduces security and stability risks.

  • In order for C# to compile unsafe code, the application must be compiled with /unsafe.

Related Sections

For more information, see:

C# Language Specification

[!INCLUDECSharplangspec]

See Also

C# Programming Guide