How to get a sub-array from an existing array in C# without copying?

You could wrap it in another object with something like this:

class View<T>
{
     private T[] _array;
     private long _start;
     private long _length;
     public View(T[] array, long start, long length) { ... }
     public T this[long index] 
     {
         get 
         {
             if (/*do bounds check here*/) 
             {
                 return _array[_start + index];
             }    
         }
     }
}

This won't be an array, but a projection of one.

You can use an ArraySegment. Here's an example:

String[] X = { "one", "two", "three", "four", "five"};

ArraySegment<String> arraySegment = new ArraySegment<String>(X, 1,3); // will contain {"two", "three", "four"}
arraySegment.Array[arraySegment.Offset + 1] = "3"; // X will contain { "one", "two", "3", "four", "five"};
                             // and arraySegment.Array will contain {"two", "3", "four"}

Sadly ArraySegment<T> is sealed, else you could easily have extended it with the proper array-syntax, ie indexers and the likes.

If I were you I would go with ArraySegment<T> and if it doesn't have the proper requirements, like ElementAt(n) being to inefficient, just implement a better implementation. Ex:

public static class ArrayExtensions 
{
  // Getter using underlying array
  public static T GetValueAt<T>(this ArraySegment<T> array, int index)
  { // No safe checks here, would recommend them in production though
    return array.Array[array.Offset + index];
  }
  // Setter using underlying array
  public static void SetValueAt<T>(this ArraySegment<T> array, int index, T value)
  { // maybe we should check that the calculated index is valid? Or just blow up?
    array.Array[array.Offset + index] = value;
  }
}