Wrap a delegate in an IEqualityComparer

madduck_9990 0
Viewed 48240

Several Linq.Enumerable functions take an IEqualityComparer<T>. Is there a convenient wrapper class that adapts a delegate(T,T)=>bool to implement IEqualityComparer<T>? It's easy enough to write one (if your ignore problems with defining a correct hashcode), but I'd like to know if there is an out-of-the-box solution.

Specifically, I want to do set operations on Dictionarys, using only the Keys to define membership (while retaining the values according to different rules).

delegates linq .net
13 Answers

When you want to customize equality checking, 99% of the time you're interested in defining the keys to compare by, not the comparison itself.

This could be an elegant solution (concept from Python's list sort method).

Usage:

var foo = new List<string> { "abc", "de", "DE" };

// case-insensitive distinct
var distinct = foo.Distinct(new KeyEqualityComparer<string>( x => x.ToLower() ) );

The KeyEqualityComparer class:

public class KeyEqualityComparer<T> : IEqualityComparer<T>
{
    private readonly Func<T, object> keyExtractor;

    public KeyEqualityComparer(Func<T,object> keyExtractor)
    {
        this.keyExtractor = keyExtractor;
    }

    public bool Equals(T x, T y)
    {
        return this.keyExtractor(x).Equals(this.keyExtractor(y));
    }

    public int GetHashCode(T obj)
    {
        return this.keyExtractor(obj).GetHashCode();
    }
}
orip_370200

I'm afraid there is no such wrapper out-of-box. However it's not hard to create one:

class Comparer<T>: IEqualityComparer<T>
{
    private readonly Func<T, T, bool> _comparer;

    public Comparer(Func<T, T, bool> comparer)
    {
        if (comparer == null)
            throw new ArgumentNullException("comparer");

        _comparer = comparer;
    }

    public bool Equals(T x, T y)
    {
        return _comparer(x, y);
    }

    public int GetHashCode(T obj)
    {
        return obj.ToString().ToLower().GetHashCode();
    }
}

...

Func<int, int, bool> f = (x, y) => x == y;
var comparer = new Comparer<int>(f);
Console.WriteLine(comparer.Equals(1, 1));
Console.WriteLine(comparer.Equals(1, 2));
aku_11960 
public class FuncEqualityComparer<T> : IEqualityComparer<T>
{
    readonly Func<T, T, bool> _comparer;
    readonly Func<T, int> _hash;

    public FuncEqualityComparer( Func<T, T, bool> comparer )
        : this( comparer, t => t.GetHashCode())
    {
    }

    public FuncEqualityComparer( Func<T, T, bool> comparer, Func<T, int> hash )
    {
        _comparer = comparer;
        _hash = hash;
    }

    public bool Equals( T x, T y )
    {
        return _comparer( x, y );
    }

    public int GetHashCode( T obj )
    {
        return _hash( obj );
    }
}

With extensions :-

public static class SequenceExtensions
{
    public static bool SequenceEqual<T>( this IEnumerable<T> first, IEnumerable<T> second, Func<T, T, bool> comparer )
    {
        return first.SequenceEqual( second, new FuncEqualityComparer<T>( comparer ) );
    }

    public static bool SequenceEqual<T>( this IEnumerable<T> first, IEnumerable<T> second, Func<T, T, bool> comparer, Func<T, int> hash )
    {
        return first.SequenceEqual( second, new FuncEqualityComparer<T>( comparer, hash ) );
    }
}
Admin1

I'm going to answer my own question. To treat Dictionaries as sets, the simplest method seems to be to apply set operations to dict.Keys, then convert back to Dictionaries with Enumerable.ToDictionary(...).

madduck_99900

orip's answer is great. Expanding on orip's answer:

i think that the solution's key is use "Extension Method" to transfer the "anonymous type".

    public static class Comparer 
    {
      public static IEqualityComparer<T> CreateComparerForElements<T>(this IEnumerable<T> enumerable, Func<T, object> keyExtractor)
      {
        return new KeyEqualityComparer<T>(keyExtractor);
      }
    }

Usage:

var n = ItemList.Select(s => new { s.Vchr, s.Id, s.Ctr, s.Vendor, s.Description, s.Invoice }).ToList();
n.AddRange(OtherList.Select(s => new { s.Vchr, s.Id, s.Ctr, s.Vendor, s.Description, s.Invoice }).ToList(););
n = n.Distinct(x=>new{Vchr=x.Vchr,Id=x.Id}).ToList();
user_12952740

I don't know of an existing class but something like:

public class MyComparer<T> : IEqualityComparer<T>
{
  private Func<T, T, bool> _compare;
  MyComparer(Func<T, T, bool> compare)
  {
    _compare = compare;
  }

  public bool Equals(T x, Ty)
  {
    return _compare(x, y);
  }

  public int GetHashCode(T obj)
  {
    return obj.GetHashCode();
  }
}

Note: I haven't actually compiled and run this yet, so there might be a typo or other bug.

Gregg_182660
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