Develop Reference

Best way to find values not in two lists c#

I have two lists which I need to compare (carOptions and custOptions).
Both of these lists are in my Customer class like below:
public class CustomerDTO
{
public int CustomerId { get; set; }
//other props removed for brevity
public List<OptionDTO> SelectedCarOptions { get; set; }
public List<OptionDTO> SelectedCustomerOptions { get; set; }
}
var existingData = _myRepository.GetDataByCustomer(customerId, year);
var existingCarOptions = existingData.Select(f => f.SelectedCarOptions);
var existingCustomerOptions = existingData.Select(f => f.SelectedCustomerOptions);
existingData is an IEnumerable of CustomerDTO and then existingCarOptions and existingCustomerOptions is an IEnumerable<List<OptionDTO>>
In the method, I have a list of IEnumerable<OptionDTO> options that gets passed in. I then break this down into car or customer based on the Enum as below:
var newCarOptions = options.Where(o => o.OptionTypeID == OptionType.CarOptions);
var newCustomerOptions = options.Where(o => o.OptionTypeID == OptionType.CustomerOptions).ToList();
What I need to do is find which options are in one collection but no in the other.
I tried as below but getting an Error on the Except (I maybe need to create my own static method in that class) but I am not sure this is the best approach really?
if (existingCarOptions.Count() != newCarOptions.Count())
{
//var test = newCarOptions.Except(existingCarOptions);
}
if (existingCustomerOptions.Count() != newCustomerOptions.Count())
{
//var test2 = newCustomerOptions.Except(existingCustomerOptions);
}
Is it also quite a bit of code in the method - I could split it out into sperate methods if required but perhaps there is a simpler way I could achieve this?

I'm assuming OptionDTO has a property called Id, which uniquely identifies an option (you have to change the code accordingly if this is not the case), you may use HashSets to quickly find unmatched OptionsDTOs, while keeping the overall time cost O(n) (where n is the max number of combined options).
Create the existing options sets:
var existingCarOptions = existingData.SelectMany(d => d.SelectedCarOptions).Select(o => o.Id);
var existingCustomerOptions = existingData.SelectMany(d => d.SelectedCustomerOptions).Select(o => o.Id);
var existingCarOptionsIds = new HashSet<int>(existingCarOptions);
var existingCustomerOptionsIds = new HashSet<int>(existingCustomerOptions );
Then you extract options missing in existing sets with:
var unmatchedCarOptions = newCarOptions.Where(o => !existingCarOptionsIds.Contains(o.Id));
var unmatchedCustomerOptions = newCustomerOptions.Where(o => !existingCustomerOptionsIds.Contains(o.Id));

If you want to compare two classes you can use IEqualityComparer
public class OptionComparer : IEqualityComparer<OptionDTO>
{
public bool Equals(OptionDTO x, OptionDTO y)
{
if (object.ReferenceEquals(x, y))
{
return true;
}
if (object.ReferenceEquals(x, null) ||
object.ReferenceEquals(y, null))
{
return false;
}
return x.OptionTypeID == y.OptionTypeID ;
}
public int GetHashCode(OptionDTO obj)
{
if (obj == null)
{
return 0;
}
return obj.OptionTypeID.GetHashCode();
}
With using this you can ıdentify that What is the concept of equality for these classes.
Now we can find different values..
public List<OptionDTO>CalculateDiffBetweenLists(List<OptionDTO> left, List<OptionDTO> right){
List<OptionDTO> optionDiff;
optionDiff = left.Except(right, new OptionComparer ()).ToList();
return optionDiff ;
}

set type dynamically using Createmany

I have different types of documents that are derived from a base type called Topic. I'd like to use:
Client.Bulk(b => b.CreateMany(documents)
to be able to process all the documents with a single call to Bulk, how can I set the type for each document?
Here is a snippet of code:
public IEnumerable<IBulkResponse> CreateBulkTopics(IEnumerable<Topic> topics)
{
var results = new List<IBulkResponse>();
results.Add(IndexDocuments(TopicFactory.ConvertDrugsToDocuments(topics)));
results.Add(IndexDocuments(TopicFactory.ConvertTreatmentSummariesToDocuments(topics)));
return results;
}
public IBulkResponse IndexDocuments(IEnumerable<Common.Elastic.Models.Topic> documents)
{
return ElasticConnector.Client.Bulk(b => b.CreateMany(documents));
}
The problem at this minute is all the documents are being stored as "topic" as opposed to the derived types such as drugs and treatmentsummaries.

How many types inherit from Topic? Are they constant and small? Then something like this can help. Lets say TopicA and TopicB inherit from Topic:
public IEnumerable<IBulkResponse> IndexDocuments(IEnumerable<Common.Elastic.Models.Topic> documents)
{
yield return ElasticConnector.Client.Bulk(b => b.CreateMany(documents.OfType<TopicA>()));
yield return ElasticConnector.Client.Bulk(b => b.CreateMany(documents.OfType<TopicB>()));
}
and then in CreateBulkTopics:
results.AddRange(IndexDocuments(....
Of course this is only effective if the number of subclasses is small and available to this code. Otherwise, you can use reflection to achieve the same result. The sample code is a bit more complex, but tell me if you need it. Also, this will degrade performance in case the number of subclasses is very high, as it will send each type in a separate request to Bulk api. I can think of no better apprach in the client.
EDIT: This is how you do it using reflection:
class MyClass
{
public IBulkResponse IndexDocuments<T>(IEnumerable<Topic> documents)
where T : Topic
{
var derived = documents.OfType<T>();
return ElasticConnector.Client.Bulk(b => b.CreateMany(derived));
}
public IEnumerable<IBulkResponse> IndexDocumentsByType(IEnumerable<Topic> documents)
{
var groups = documents.GroupBy(x => x.GetType());
var method = typeof(MyClass).GetMethod(nameof(IndexDocuments)); //prior to c#6, typeof(MyClass).GetMethod("IndexDocuments")
foreach (var group in groups)
{
var generic = method.MakeGenericMethod(group.Key);
var result = generic.Invoke(this, new object[] { group });
yield return result as IBulkResponse;
}
}
}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var documents = new Topic[] { new TopicA(), new TopicA(), new TopicB(), new Topic() };
var result = new MyClass().IndexDocumentsByType(documents);
Console.WriteLine(result.Count()); //writes 3
}
}

I've managed to do it using a generic class:
public class IndexOperations<T> where T:Topic
{
public ElasticConnector ElasticConnector { get; set; }
public IndexOperations(ElasticConnector elasticConnector)
{
ElasticConnector = elasticConnector;
}
public IBulkResponse CreateMany(IEnumerable<T> t)
{
return ElasticConnector.Client.Bulk(b => b.CreateMany(t));
}
}
Client code:
var documents = TopicFactory.ConvertToDocuments(topics);
SaveDrugs(documents);
public IBulkResponse SaveDrugs(IEnumerable<Common.Elastic.Models.Topic> documents)
{
var indexOperations = new IndexOperations<Drug>(ElasticConnector);
return indexOperations.CreateMany(documents.OfType<Drug>());
}

Unexpected behavior when using a predicate on nested entity lists

I have stumbled upon a riddle which I can't explain, maybe someone here will be able to.
Here is a (rather lengthy but complete) code snippet:
public class Foo
{
public int ID { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public virtual ICollection<Foo> InnerFoo { get; set; }
}
public class AppContext : DbContext
{
public IDbSet<Foo> Foos { get; set; }
}
public class Initializer : DropCreateDatabaseAlways<AppContext>
{
protected override void Seed(AppContext context)
{
var list = new List<Foo>
{
new Foo {Name = "one", InnerFoo = new List<Foo>{new Foo {Name = "Four"}}},
new Foo {Name = "two"},
new Foo {Name = "three"},
};
list.ForEach(f => context.Foos.Add(f));
}
}
public class Filter
{
public static Expression<Func<Foo, bool>> GetPredicate()
{
return p => p.Name != null && p.Name.Length > 3;
}
}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Database.SetInitializer(new Initializer());
using (var ctx = new AppContext())
{
var predicate = Filter.GetPredicate();
var list = ctx.Foos.Where(f => f.InnerFoo.AsQueryable().Where(predicate).Count() > 0).ToList(); // this works
// var list = ctx.Foos.Where(f => f.InnerFoo.AsQueryable().Where(Filter.GetPredicate()).Count() > 0).ToList(); // this doesn't
foreach (var s in list)
{
Console.WriteLine(s.Name);
}
}
}
}
The line that's commented out doesn't work - throws an exception at runtime - "Internal .NET Framework Data Provider error 1025.". I'm using EntityFramework.4.1.10715.0
Can anyone tell me why?
Side question: I'm looking for a way to keep filtering expressions that are used in several different classes.

The problem is that your inner Where is already within the context of an "outer Where" on ctx.Foos - so the call to Filter.GetPredicate() ends up as part of the expression tree, and the Entity Framework has no idea what it means or how to translate it into SQL.
That's why it's happening... I'm not sure of the best solution right now though, unless you can extract the predicate into a separate variable where you need it.
(As an aside, it's generally more expressive to use Any(...) than ...Count() > 0 - and in LINQ to Objects it can make a huge difference.)

You hinted towards this yourself already, but just to make it clear to future readers.
You can use the function to generate the predicate as you're doing, but you need to store the expression in an intermediate expression within your function.
i.e. change:
var list = ctx.Foos.Where(f => f.InnerFoo.AsQueryable().Where(Filter.GetPredicate()).Count() > 0).ToList();
into:
var pred = Filter.GetPredicate();
var list = ctx.Foos.Where(f => f.InnerFoo.AsQueryable().Where(pred).Count() > 0).ToList();
I'm still puzzled as to why this happens this way.

Variable initalisation in while loop

I have a function that reads a file in chunks.
public static DataObject ReadNextFile(){ ...}
And dataobject looks like this:
public DataObject
{
public string Category { get; set; }
// And other members ...
}
What I want to do is the following basically
List<DataObject> dataObjects = new List<DataObject>();
while(ReadNextFile().Category == "category")
{
dataObjects.Add(^^^^^ the thingy in the while);
}
I know it's probably not how it's done, because how do I access the object I've just read.

I think what you're looking for is:
List<DataObject> dataObjects = new List<DataObject>();
DataObject nextObject;
while((nextObject = ReadNextFile()).Category == "category")
{
dataObjects.Add(nextObject);
}
But I wouldn't do that. I'd write:
List<DataObject> dataObject = source.ReadItems()
.TakeWhile(x => x.Category == "Category")
.ToList();
where ReadItems() was a method returning an IEnumerable<DataObject>, reading and yielding one item at a time. You may well want to implement it with an iterator block (yield return etc).
This is assuming you really want to stop reading as soon as you find the first object which has a different category. If you actually want to include all the matching DataObjects,
change TakeWhile to Where in the above LINQ query.
(EDIT: Saeed has since deleted his objections to the answer, but I guess I might as well leave the example up...)
EDIT: Proof that this will work, as Saeed doesn't seem to believe me:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
public class DataObject
{
public string Category { get; set; }
public int Id { get; set; }
}
class Test
{
static int count = 0;
static DataObject ReadNextFile()
{
count++;
return new DataObject
{
Category = count <= 5 ? "yes" : "no",
Id = count
};
}
static void Main()
{
List<DataObject> dataObjects = new List<DataObject>();
DataObject nextObject;
while((nextObject = ReadNextFile()).Category == "yes")
{
dataObjects.Add(nextObject);
}
foreach (DataObject x in dataObjects)
{
Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1}", x.Id, x.Category);
}
}
}
Output:
1: yes
2: yes
3: yes
4: yes
5: yes
In other words, the list has retained references to the 5 distinct objects which have been returned from ReadNextFile.

This is subjective, but I hate this pattern (and I fully recognize that I am in the very small minority here). Here is how I do it when I need something like this.
var dataObjects = new List<DataObject>();
while(true) {
DataObject obj = ReadNextFile();
if(obj.Category != "category") {
break;
}
dataObjects.Add(obj);
}
But these days, it is better to say
List<DataObject> dataObjects = GetItemsFromFile(path)
.TakeWhile(x => x.Category == "category")
.ToList();
Here, of course, GetItemsFromFile reads the items from the file pointed to by path and returns an IEnumerable<DataObject>.

List<DataObject> dataObjects = new List<DataObject>();
string category = "";
while((category=ReadNextFile().Category) == "category")
{
dataObjects.Add(new DataObject{Category = category});
}
And if you have more complicated object you can do this (like jon):
List<DataObject> dataObjects = new List<DataObject>();
var category = new DataObject();
while((category=ReadNextFile()).Category == "category")
{
dataObjects.Add(category);
}

You should look into implementing IEnumerator on the class container the call to ReadNextFile(). Then you would always have reference to the current object with IEnumerator.Current, and MoveNext() will return the bool you are looking for to check for advancement. Something like this:
public class ObjectReader : IEnumerator<DataObject>
{
public bool MoveNext()
{
// try to read next file, return false if you can't
// if you can, set the Current to the returned DataObject
}
public DataObject Current
{
get;
private set;
}
}

How to compare two distinctly different objects with similar properties

This is all in C#, using .NET 2.0.
I have two lists of objects. They are not related objects, but they do have certain things in common that can be compared, such as a GUID-based unique identifier. These two lists need to be filtered by another list which just contains GUIDs which may or may not match up with the IDs contained in the first two lists.
I have thought about the idea of casting each object list to just object and sorting by that, but I'm not sure that I'll be able to access the ID property once it's cast, and I'm thinking that the method to sort the two lists should be somewhat dumb in knowing what the list to be sorted is.
What would be the best way to bring in each object list so that it can be sorted against the list with only the IDs?

You should make each of your different objects implement a common interface. Then create an IComparer<T> for that interface and use it in your sort.

Okay, if you have access to modify your original classes only to add the interface there, Matthew had it spot on. I went a little crazy here and defined out a full solution using 2.0 anonymous delegates. (I think I'm way addicted to 3.0 Lambda; otherwise, I probably would've written this out in foreach loops if I was using 2005 still).
Basically, create an interface with the common properties. Make yoru two classes implement the interface. Create a common list casted as the interface, cast and rip the values into the new list; remove any unmatched items.
//Program Output:
List1:
206aa77c-8259-428b-a4a0-0e005d8b016c
64f71cc9-596d-4cb8-9eb3-35da3b96f583
List2:
10382452-a7fe-4307-ae4c-41580dc69146
97f3f3f6-6e64-4109-9737-cb72280bc112
64f71cc9-596d-4cb8-9eb3-35da3b96f583
Matches:
64f71cc9-596d-4cb8-9eb3-35da3b96f583
Press any key to continue . . .
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
namespace ConsoleApplication8
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
//test initialization
List<ClassTypeA> list1 = new List<ClassTypeA>();
List<ClassTypeB> list2 = new List<ClassTypeB>();
ClassTypeA citem = new ClassTypeA();
ClassTypeB citem2 = new ClassTypeB();
citem2.ID = citem.ID;
list1.Add(new ClassTypeA());
list1.Add(citem);
list2.Add(new ClassTypeB());
list2.Add(new ClassTypeB());
list2.Add(citem2);
//new common list.
List<ICommonTypeMakeUpYourOwnName> common_list =
new List<ICommonTypeMakeUpYourOwnName>();
//in english, give me everything in list 1
//and cast it to the interface
common_list.AddRange(
list1.ConvertAll<ICommonTypeMakeUpYourOwnName>(delegate(
ClassTypeA x) { return (ICommonTypeMakeUpYourOwnName)x; }));
//in english, give me all the items in the
//common list that don't exist in list2 and remove them.
common_list.RemoveAll(delegate(ICommonTypeMakeUpYourOwnName x)
{ return list2.Find(delegate(ClassTypeB y)
{return y.ID == x.ID;}) == null; });
//show list1
Console.WriteLine("List1:");
foreach (ClassTypeA item in list1)
{
Console.WriteLine(item.ID);
}
//show list2
Console.WriteLine("\nList2:");
foreach (ClassTypeB item in list2)
{
Console.WriteLine(item.ID);
}
//show the common items
Console.WriteLine("\nMatches:");
foreach (ICommonTypeMakeUpYourOwnName item in common_list)
{
Console.WriteLine(item.ID);
}
}
}
interface ICommonTypeMakeUpYourOwnName
{
Guid ID { get; set; }
}
class ClassTypeA : ICommonTypeMakeUpYourOwnName
{
Guid _ID;
public Guid ID {get { return _ID; } set { _ID = value;}}
int _Stuff1;
public int Stuff1 {get { return _Stuff1; } set { _Stuff1 = value;}}
string _Stuff2;
public string Stuff2 {get { return _Stuff2; } set { _Stuff2 = value;}}
public ClassTypeA()
{
this.ID = Guid.NewGuid();
}
}
class ClassTypeB : ICommonTypeMakeUpYourOwnName
{
Guid _ID;
public Guid ID {get { return _ID; } set { _ID = value;}}
int _Stuff3;
public int Stuff3 {get { return _Stuff3; } set { _Stuff3 = value;}}
string _Stuff4;
public string Stuff4 {get { return _Stuff4; } set { _Stuff4 = value;}}
public ClassTypeB()
{
this.ID = Guid.NewGuid();
}
}
}

Using only .NET 2.0 methods:
class Foo
{
public Guid Guid { get; }
}
List<Foo> GetFooSubset(List<Foo> foos, List<Guid> guids)
{
return foos.FindAll(foo => guids.Contains(foo.Guid));
}
If your classes don't implement a common interface, you'll have to implement GetFooSubset for each type individually.

I'm not sure that I fully understand what you want, but you can use linq to select out the matching items from the lists as well as sorting them. Here is a simple example where the values from one list are filtered on another and sorted.
List<int> itemList = new List<int>() { 9,6,3,4,5,2,7,8,1 };
List<int> filterList = new List<int>() { 2, 6, 9 };
IEnumerable<int> filtered = itemList.SelectMany(item => filterList.Where(filter => filter == item)).OrderBy(p => p);

I haven't had a chance to use AutoMapper yet, but from what you describe you wish to check it out. From Jimmy Bogard's post:
AutoMapper conventions
Since AutoMapper flattens, it will
look for:
Matching property names
Nested property names (Product.Name
maps to ProductName, by assuming a
PascalCase naming convention)
Methods starting with the word “Get”,
so GetTotal() maps to Total
Any existing type map already
configured
Basically, if you removed all the
“dots” and “Gets”, AutoMapper will
match property names. Right now,
AutoMapper does not fail on mismatched
types, but for some other reasons.

I am not totally sure what you want as your end results, however....
If you are comparing the properties on two different types you could project the property names and corresponding values into two dictionaries. And with that information do some sort of sorting/difference of the property values.
Guid newGuid = Guid.NewGuid();
var classA = new ClassA{Id = newGuid};
var classB = new ClassB{Id = newGuid};
PropertyInfo[] classAProperties = classA.GetType().GetProperties();
Dictionary<string, object> classAPropertyValue = classAProperties.ToDictionary(pName => pName.Name,
pValue =>
pValue.GetValue(classA, null));
PropertyInfo[] classBProperties = classB.GetType().GetProperties();
Dictionary<string, object> classBPropetyValue = classBProperties.ToDictionary(pName => pName.Name,
pValue =>
pValue.GetValue(classB, null));
internal class ClassB
{
public Guid Id { get; set; }
}
internal class ClassA
{
public Guid Id { get; set; }
}
classAPropertyValue
Count = 1
[0]: {[Id, d0093d33-a59b-4537-bde9-67db324cf7f6]}
classBPropetyValue
Count = 1
[0]: {[Id, d0093d33-a59b-4537-bde9-67db324cf7f6]}

Thist should essentially get you what you want - but you may be better of using linq
class T1
{
public T1(Guid g, string n) { Guid = g; MyName = n; }
public Guid Guid { get; set; }
public string MyName { get; set; }
}
class T2
{
public T2(Guid g, string n) { ID = g; Name = n; }
public Guid ID { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
}
class Test
{
public void Run()
{
Guid G1 = Guid.NewGuid();
Guid G2 = Guid.NewGuid();
Guid G3 = Guid.NewGuid();
List<T1> t1s = new List<T1>() {
new T1(G1, "one"),
new T1(G2, "two"),
new T1(G3, "three")
};
List<Guid> filter = new List<Guid>() { G2, G3};
List<T1> filteredValues1 = t1s.FindAll(delegate(T1 item)
{
return filter.Contains(item.Guid);
});
List<T1> filteredValues2 = t1s.FindAll(o1 => filter.Contains(o1.Guid));
}
}