Because you tried to access an element in a collection, using a numeric index that exceeds the collection's boundaries.
The first element in a collection is generally located at index 0. The last element is at index n-1, where n is the Size of the collection (the number of elements it contains). If you attempt to use a negative number as an index, or a number that is larger than Size-1, you're going to get an error.
When you declare an array like this:
var array = new int[6]
The first and last elements in the array are
var firstElement = array[0];
var lastElement = array[5];
So when you write:
var element = array[5];
you are retrieving the sixth element in the array, not the fifth one.
Typically, you would loop over an array like this:
for (int index = 0; index < array.Length; index++)
{
Console.WriteLine(array[index]);
}
This works, because the loop starts at zero, and ends at Length-1 because index is no longer less than Length.
This, however, will throw an exception:
for (int index = 0; index <= array.Length; index++)
{
Console.WriteLine(array[index]);
}
Notice the <= there? index will now be out of range in the last loop iteration, because the loop thinks that Length is a valid index, but it is not.
Lists work the same way, except that you generally use Count instead of Length. They still start at zero, and end at Count - 1.
for (int index = 0; i < list.Count; index++)
{
Console.WriteLine(list[index]);
}
However, you can also iterate through a list using foreach, avoiding the whole problem of indexing entirely:
foreach (var element in list)
{
Console.WriteLine(element.ToString());
}
You cannot index an element that hasn't been added to a collection yet.
var list = new List<string>();
list.Add("Zero");
list.Add("One");
list.Add("Two");
Console.WriteLine(list[3]); // Throws exception.