LINQ Pocket Reference

Projection Strategies

Object Initializers

So far, all our select clauses have projected scalar element types. With C# object initializers, you can project into more complex types. For example, suppose, as a first step in a query, we want to strip vowels from a list of names while still retaining the original versions alongside for the benefit of subsequent queries. We can write the following class to assist:

	class Temp ProjectionItem
	{
	  public string Original;    // Original name
	  public string Vowelless;   // Vowel-stripped name
	}

and then project into it with object initializers:

	string[] names = { "Tom","Dick","Harry","Mary","Jay" };

	IEnumerable<TempProjectionItem> temp =
	  from n in names
	  select new TempProjectionItem
	  {
	    Original  = n,
	    Vowelless = Regex.Replace (n, "[aeiou]", "")
	};

The result is of type IEnumerable<TempProjectionItem >, which we can subsequently query:

	IEnumerable<string> query =
	  from   item in temp
	  where  item.Vowelless.Length > 2
	  select item.Original;

	// RESULT: Dick, Harry, Mary

Anonymous Types

Anonymous types allow you to structure your intermediate results without writing special classes. We can eliminate the TempProjectionItem class in our previous example with anonymous types:

var intermediate = from n in names 
	  select new
	  {
	    Original = n,
	    Vowelless = Regex.Replace (n,"[aeiou]", "")
	  };

	IEnumerable<string> query =
	  from item in intermediate
	  where item.Vowelless.Length > 2
	  select item.Original;

This gives the same result as the previous example, but without needing to write ...