Select Multiple Fields from List in Linq

user_112614 0
Viewed 516568

In ASP.NET C# I have a struct:

public struct Data
{
    public int item1;
    public int item2;
    public int category_id;
    public string category_name;
}

and I have a List of those. I want to select category_id and category_name, running a DISTINCT and finally an ORDERBY on category_name.

Here's what I have now:

List<Data> listObject = getData();
string[] catNames = listObject
                    .Select(i=> i.category_name)
                    .Distinct()
                    .OrderByDescending(s => s)
                    .ToArray();

This obviously just gets the category name. My question is, how do I get multiple fields, and what data structure will I store this in (not a string[])?

EDIT

Using a list of structs is not set in stone. If it would be advisable to change my backing data structure to make selects easier (I'll be writing a lot of these) then I'd gladly take recommendations.

data-structures linq c#
10 Answers

Anonymous types allow you to select arbitrary fields into data structures that are strongly typed later on in your code:

var cats = listObject
    .Select(i => new { i.category_id, i.category_name })
    .Distinct()
    .OrderByDescending(i => i.category_name)
    .ToArray();

Since you (apparently) need to store it for later use, you could use the GroupBy operator:

Data[] cats = listObject
    .GroupBy(i => new { i.category_id, i.category_name })
    .OrderByDescending(g => g.Key.category_name)
    .Select(g => g.First())
    .ToArray();
user_1009020 
var selectedCategories =
    from value in
        (from data in listObject
        orderby data.category_name descending
        select new { ID = data.category_id, Name = data.category_name })
    group value by value.Name into g
    select g.First();

foreach (var category in selectedCategories) Console.WriteLine(category);

Edit: Made it more LINQ-ey!

user_1366830

You could use an anonymous type:

.Select(i => new { i.name, i.category_name })

The compiler will generate the code for a class with name and category_name properties and returns instances of that class. You can also manually specify property names:

i => new { Id = i.category_id, Name = i.category_name }

You can have arbitrary number of properties.

user_337080

This is task for which anonymous types are very well suited. You can return objects of a type that is created automatically by the compiler, inferred from usage.

The syntax is of this form:

new { Property1 = value1, Property2 = value2, ... }

For your case, try something like the following:

var listObject = getData();
var catNames = listObject.Select(i =>
    new { CatName = i.category_name, Item1 = i.item1, Item2 = i.item2 })
    .Distinct().OrderByDescending(s => s).ToArray();
user_443890 
var result = listObject.Select( i => new{ i.category_name, i.category_id } )

This uses anonymous types so you must the var keyword, since the resulting type of the expression is not known in advance.

Paul_van_Brenk_18371970 
(from i in list
 select new { i.category_id, i.category_name })
 .Distinct()
 .OrderBy(i => i.category_name);
user_864830 
public class Student
{
    public string Name { set; get; }
    public int ID { set; get; }
}

class Program
{
  static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Student[] students =
        {
        new Student { Name="zoyeb" , ID=1},
        new Student { Name="Siddiq" , ID=2},
        new Student { Name="sam" , ID=3},
        new Student { Name="james" , ID=4},
        new Student { Name="sonia" , ID=5}
        };

        var studentCollection = from s in students select new { s.ID , s.Name};

        foreach (var student in studentCollection)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(student.Name);
            Console.WriteLine(student.ID);
        }
    }
}
user_41236710

Given List<MyType1> internalUsers and List<MyType2> externalUsers, based on the shared key of an email address...

For C# 7.0+:

var matches = (
    from i in internalUsers
    join e in externalUsers
    on i.EmailAddress.ToUpperInvariant() equals e.Email.ToUpperInvariant()
    select (internalUser:i, externalUser:e)
).ToList();

Which gives you matches as a List<(MyType1, MyType2)>.

From there you can compare them if you wish:

var internal_in_external = matches.Select(m => m.internalUser).ToList();
var external_in_internal = matches.Select(m => m.externalUser).ToList();

var internal_notIn_external = internalUsers.Except(internal_in_external).ToList();
var external_notIn_internal = externalUsers.Except(external_in_internal).ToList();

internal_in_external and internal_notIn_external will be of type List<MyType1>.

external_in_internal and external_notIn_internal will be of type List<MyType2>

For versions of C# prior to 7.0:

var matches = (
    from i in internalUsers
    join e in externalUsers
    on i.EmailAddress.ToUpperInvariant() equals e.Email.ToUpperInvariant()
    select new Tuple<MyType1, MyType2>(i, e)
).ToList();

Which gives you matches as a List<Tuple<MyType1, MyType2>>.

From there you can compare them if you wish:

var internal_in_external = matches.Select(m => m.Item1).ToList();
var external_in_internal = matches.Select(m => m.Item2).ToList();

var internal_notIn_external = internalUsers.Except(internal_in_external).ToList();
var external_notIn_internal = externalUsers.Except(external_in_internal).ToList();

internal_in_external and internal_notIn_external will be of type List<MyType1>.

external_in_internal and external_notIn_internal will be of type List<MyType2>

user_15634220
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