c# - Direct array initialization with a constant value

Question

Whenever you allocate a new array in C# with

new T[length]

the array entries are set to the default of T. That is null for the case that T is a reference type or the result of the default constructor of T, if T is a value type.

In my case i want to initialize an Int32 array with the value -1:

var myArray = new int[100];
for (int i=0; i<myArray.Length; i++) { myArray[i] = -1; }

So after the memory is reserved for the array, the CLR loops over the newly allocated memory and sets all entries to default(int) = 0. After that, my code sets all entries to -1.

That makes the initialization redundant. Does the JIT detect this and neglects the initialization to 0 and if not, is there a way to directly initialize a portion of memory with a custom value?

Referring to C# Array initialization - with non-default value , using Enumerable.Repeat(value, length).ToArray() is no option, because Enumerable.ToArray allocates a new array and copies the values to it afterwards.

Answer 1

Similar to Dan's answer but without the need of using collections:

int[] myArray = Enumerable.Repeat(-1, 100).ToArray();