Shrink Methods

Shrinking allows you to reduce the size of a collection. This can be done by specifying new dimensions or by removing the last element of a specific dimension.

Explicit Shrinking

The Shrink method reduces the collection to the specified size. It throws an ArgumentOutOfRangeException if any of the new dimensions are larger than the current ones.

var list = new List2D<int>(10, 10);
list.Shrink(5, 5); // Reduces to 5x5, freeing memory

Quick Shrinking

The Shrink{Dim} methods remove the last "row", "column", or "plane" of the collection, reducing its size in that dimension by exactly one.

2D List Quick Shrink

• ShrinkX(): Removes the last column.
• ShrinkY(): Removes the last row.

var list = new List2D<int>(3, 3);
list.ShrinkX(); // Now 2x3
list.ShrinkY(); // Now 2x2

3D and 4D Quick Shrink

• List3D: ShrinkX(), ShrinkY(), ShrinkZ().
• List4D: ShrinkW(), ShrinkX(), ShrinkY(), ShrinkZ().

Shrinking vs. Resizing

While Resize can also be used to shrink a collection, the Shrink and Shrink{Dim} methods are more specialized:

• Shrink explicitly signals the intent to reduce size and will fail if you accidentally try to grow the collection.
• Shrink{Dim} is a convenient way to pop the last element of a dimension without needing to know the current size.

Effects on Memory

Note

Calling Shrink(x, y) (or Resize) usually triggers a reallocation of the underlying storage to match the new size, which can help reduce memory usage after large deletions. In contrast, ShrinkX() and ShrinkY() typically just decrement the size counter and null out references (for reference types) to allow for garbage collection of the removed elements.