How to get a pointer of list?

Question

So i know that list holds array inside it, so i need to get a pointer of unknown type of it (void*). It is pretty easy to do with arrays:

int[] items;
fixed (void* pointer = items)
{

}

So i need to do same thing for List

List<int> items;
fixed (void* pointer = items)
{

}

This code doesn't seems to work. I don't want to copy a list to a new array, i want to access a pointer to it's internal array

Answer 1

I use this, Just use it carefully and you won't have any problems.

public static Span<T> AsSpan<T>(this List<T> list) where T : unmanaged
{
    return CollectionsMarshal.AsSpan(list);
}

public static ref T AsRef<T>(this List<T> list, int index) where T : unmanaged
{
    return ref CollectionsMarshal.AsSpan(list)[index];
}