What is the meaning of "this [int index]"?
That is an indexer defined on the interface. It means you can get
and set
the value of list[index]
for any IList<T> list
and int index
.
Documentation: Indexers in Interfaces (C# Programming Guide)
Consider the IReadOnlyList<T>
interface:
public interface IReadOnlyList<out T> : IReadOnlyCollection<T>,
IEnumerable<T>, IEnumerable
{
int Count { get; }
T this[int index] { get; }
}
And an example implementation of that interface:
public class Range : IReadOnlyList<int>
{
public int Start { get; private set; }
public int Count { get; private set; }
public int this[int index]
{
get
{
if (index < 0 || index >= Count)
{
throw new IndexOutOfBoundsException("index");
}
return Start + index;
}
}
public Range(int start, int count)
{
this.Start = start;
this.Count = count;
}
public IEnumerable<int> GetEnumerator()
{
return Enumerable.Range(Start, Count);
}
...
}
Now you could write code like this:
IReadOnlyList<int> list = new Range(5, 3);
int value = list[1]; // value = 6
That is an indexer. So you can access the instance like an array;
See MSDN documentation.