| target | The managed array to pin. It should be a valid array managed by the garbage collector. |
| gcHandle | The handle to associate with the pinned object. This should be managed properly to ensure it is correctly released. |
void* A pointer to the first element of the pinned array. Use this pointer for direct memory access to the array elements.
Pins a garbage-collected (GC) array and returns the address of its first element, ensuring the array's memory location remains fixed.
The PinGCArrayAndGetDataAddress method pins a managed array in memory, preventing the garbage collector from relocating it. This is crucial when interfacing with native code or conducting low-level memory operations involving managed arrays. Use this method to obtain a stable pointer to array elements for performance-critical operations.
After pinning an array, release the GC handle using UnsafeUtility.ReleaseGCObject when the array no longer needs to be pinned to avoid resource leaks.
using UnityEngine; using Unity.Collections.LowLevel.Unsafe; using System;
public class PinArrayExample : MonoBehaviour { void Start() { int[] managedArray = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };
// Pin the managed array and get the address of its first element unsafe { void* dataPtr = UnsafeUtility.PinGCArrayAndGetDataAddress(managedArray, out ulong gcHandle);
Debug.Log($"Address of first element: {(IntPtr)dataPtr}");
// Manipulate the array data directly using the pointer int* intPtr = (int*)dataPtr; for (int i = 0; i < managedArray.Length; i++) { intPtr[i] *= 2; // Double each element in the array }
// Verify changes by logging the updated array Debug.Log("Contents of managed array after manipulation:"); for (int i = 0; i < managedArray.Length; i++) { Debug.Log(managedArray[i]); // Expected output: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 }
// Release the GC handle once done UnsafeUtility.ReleaseGCObject(gcHandle); }
// Confirm that the GC handle is released Debug.Log("GC handle released, managed array unpinned."); } }
Additional resources: UnsafeUtility.PinGCArrayAndGetDataAddress.