Hezium.Memory

BigArray, BigMemory, BigReadOnlyMemory, BigSpan, and BigReadOnlySpan for .NET code that wants the Array/Memory/Span programming model with nint lengths and indexes.

The standard T[] and Span APIs are excellent until the array you want to model is larger than the largest single managed array. Hezium.Memory keeps the surface area familiar: allocate an owner, take a span-like view, slice it, search it, copy it, sort it, and pass references around without inventing a second indexing style.

dotnet add package Hezium.Memory

using Hezium.Memory;

nint length = 10_000_000_000;
BigArray buffer = new(length);

buffer[0] = 1;
buffer[5_000_000_000] = 2;
buffer[length - 1] = 3;

BigSpan window = buffer.AsBigSpan(5_000_000_000, 1024);

window[0] = 42;
Console.WriteLine(buffer[5_000_000_000]); // 42

BigArray allocates on managed memory with GC support, so you can use it with reference types and it will be collected when no longer being used.

For explicit GC-style allocation, use GC.AllocateBigArray() or GC.AllocateUninitializedBigArray(). Both APIs accept the same pinned option as the built-in GC array allocation helpers.

BigArray zeroed = GC.AllocateBigArray(length);
BigArray scratch = GC.AllocateUninitializedBigArray(length);
BigArray pinned = GC.AllocateBigArray(length, pinned: true);

For more details about how this library was built, see the Introduction.

Why

Some workloads are naturally one-dimensional and very large: columnar data, precomputed lookup tables, native interop buffers, generated datasets, simulation state, and file-backed processing pipelines. The important part is not only "can I allocate a lot of elements", but "can I keep using the same mental model when I do?"

Hezium.Memory is built around that goal:

• BigArray is the owning storage type.
• BigMemory is the mutable storable view.
• BigReadOnlyMemory is the read-only storable view.
• BigSpan is the mutable stack-only view.
• BigReadOnlySpan is the read-only stack-only view.
• Lengths, indexes, and offsets are nint.
• APIs intentionally resemble Array, Memory, ReadOnlyMemory, Span, ReadOnlySpan, and MemoryMarshal.

BigArray

BigArray is a one-d