Develop Reference

Update a property field in a List

I have a List<Map> and I wanted to update the Map.Target property based from a matching value from another List<Map>.
Basically, the logic is:
If mapsList1.Name is equal to mapsList2.Name
Then mapsList1.Target = mapsList2.Name
The structure of the Map class looks like this:
public class Map {
public Guid Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Target { get; set; }
}
I tried the following but obviously it's not working:
List<Map> mapsList1 = new List<Map>();
List<Map> mapsList2 = new List<Map>();
// populate the 2 lists here
mapsList1.Where(m1 => mapsList2.Where(m2 => m1.Name == m2.Name) ) // don't know what to do next
The count of items in list 1 will be always greater than or equal to the count of items in list 2. No duplicates in both lists.

Assuming there are a small number of items in the lists and only one item in list 1 that matches:
list2.ForEach(l2m => list1.First(l1m => l1m.Name == l2m.Name).Target = l2m.Target);
If there are more than one item in List1 that must be updated, enumerate the entire list1 doing a First on list2.
list1.ForEach(l1m => l1m.Target = list2.FirstOrDefault(l2m => l1.Name == l2m.Name)?.Target ?? l1m.Target);
If there are a large number of items in list2, turn it into a dictionary
var d = list2.ToDictionary(m => m.Name);
list1.ForEach(m => m.Target = d.ContainsKey(m.Name) ? d[m.Name].Target : m.Target);
(Presumably list2 doesn't contain any repeated names)
If list1's names are unique and everything in list2 is in list1, you could even turn list1 into a dictionary and enumerate list2:
var d=list1.ToDictionary(m => m.Name);
list2.ForEach(m => d[m.Name].Target = m.Target);
If List 2 has entries that are not in list1 or list1 has duplicate names, you could use a Lookup instead, you'd just have to do something to avoid a "collection was modified; enumeration may not execute" you'd get if you were trying to modify the list it returns in response to a name
mapsList1.Where(m1 => mapsList2.Where(m2 => m1.Name == m2.Name) ) // don't know what to do next
LINQ Where doesn't really work like that / that's not a statement in itself. The m1 is the entry from list1, and the inner Where would produce an enumerable of list 2 items, but it doesn't result in the Boolean the outer Where is expecting, nor can you do anything to either of the sequences because LINQ operations are not supposed to have side effects. The only thing you can do with a Where is capture or use the sequence it returns in some other operation (like enumerating it), so Where isn't really something you'd use for this operation unless you use it to find all the objects you need to alter. It's probably worth pointing out that ForEach is a list thing, not a LINQ thing, and is basically just another way of writing foreach(var item in someList)

If collections are big enough better approach would be to create a dictionary to lookup the targets:
List<Map> mapsList1 = new List<Map>();
List<Map> mapsList2 = new List<Map>();
var dict = mapsList2
.GroupBy(map => map.Name)
.ToDictionary(maps => maps.Key, maps => maps.First().Target);
foreach (var map in mapsList1)
{
if (dict.TryGetValue(map.Name, out var target))
{
map.Target = target;
}
}
Note, that this will discard any possible name duplicates from mapsList2.

Flatten a Dictionary<int, List<object>>

I have a dictionary which has an integer Key that represents a year, and a Value which is a list of object Channel. I need to flatten the data and create a new object from it.
Currently, my code looks like this:
Dictionary<int, List<Channel>> myDictionary;
foreach(var x in myDictionary)
{
var result = (from a in x.Value
from b in anotherList
where a.ChannelId == b.ChannelId
select new NewObject
{
NewObjectYear = x.Key,
NewObjectName = a.First().ChannelName,
}).ToList();
list.AddRange(result);
}
Notice that I am using the Key to be the value of property NewObjectYear.
I want to get rid of foreach since the dictionary contains a lot of data and doing some joins inside the iteration makes it very slow. So I decided to refactor and came up with this:
var flatten = myDictionary.SelectMany(x => x.Value.Select(y =>
new KeyValuePair<int, Channel>(x.Key, y))).ToList();
But with this, I couldn't get the Key directly. Using something like flatten.Select(x => x.Key) is definitely not the correct way. So I tried finding other ways to flatten that would be favorable for my scenario but failed. I also thought about creating a class which will contain the year and the list from the flattened but I don't know how.
Please help me with this.
Also, is there also another way that doesn't have the need to create a new class?

It seems to me you are trying to do only filtering, you do not need join for that:
var anotherListIDs = new HashSet<int>(anotherList.Select(c => c.ChannelId));
foreach (var x in myDictionary)
{
list.AddRange(x.Value
.Where(c => anotherListIDs.Contains(c.ChannelId))
.Select(c => new NewObject
{
NewObjectYear = x.Key,
NewObjectName = c.First().ChannelName,
}));
}

You do realise, that if the second element of the list in a specific dictionary element has a matching channelId, that you return the first element of this list, don't you?
var otherList = new OtherItem[]
{
new OtherItem() {ChannelId = 1, ...}
}
var dictionary = new Dictionary<int, List<Channel>[]
{
{ 10, // Key
new List<Channel>() // Value
{
new Channel() {ChannelId = 100, Name = "100"},
new Channel() {ChannelId = 1, Name = "1"},
},
};
Although the 2nd element has a matching ChannelId, you return the Name of the first element.
Anyway, let's assume this is what you really want. You are right, your function isn't very efficient.
Your dictionary implements IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<int, List<Channel>>. Therefore every x in your foreach is a KeyValuePair<int, List<Channel>. Every x.Value is a List<Channel>.
So for every element in your dictionary (which is a KeyValuePair<int, List<Channel>), you take the complete list, and perform a full inner join of the complete list with otherList, and for the result you take the key of the KeyValuePair and the first element of the List in the KeyValuePair.
And even though you might not use the complete result, but only the first or the first few, because of FirstOrDefault(), or Take(3), you do this for every element of every list in your Dictionary.
Indeed your query could be much more efficient.
As you use the ChannelIds in your OtherList only to find out if it is present, one of the major improvements would be to convert the ChannelIds of OtherList to a HashSet<int> where you have superior fast lookup to check if the ChannelId of one of the values in your Dictionary is in the HashSet.
So for every element in your dictionary, you only have to check every ChannelId in the list to see if one of them is in the HashSet. As soon as you've found one, you can stop and return only the first element of the List and the Key.
My solution is an extension function of Dictionary>. See Extension Methods Demystified
public static IEnumerable<NewObject> ExtractNewObjects(this Dictionary<int, List<Channel>> dictionary,
IEnumerable<OtherItem> otherList)
{
// I'll only use the ChannelIds of the otherList, so extract them
IEnumerable<int> otherChannelIds = otherList
.Select(otherItem => otherItem.ChannelId);
return dictionary.ExtractNewObjects(otherChannelIds);
}
This calls the other ExtractNewobjects:
public static IEnumerable<NewObject> ExtractNewObjects(this Dictionary<int, List<Channel>> dictionary,
IEnumerable<int> otherChannelIds)
{
var channelIdsSet = new HashSet<int>(otherChannelIds));
// duplicate channelIds will be removed automatically
foreach (KeyValuePair<int, List<Channel>> keyValuePair in dictionary)
{
// is any ChannelId in the list also in otherChannelIdsSet?
// every keyValuePair.Value is a List<Channel>
// every Channel has a ChannelId
// channelId found if any of these ChannelIds in in the HashSet
bool channelIdFound = keyValuePair.Value
.Any(channel => otherChannelIdsSet.Contains(channel.ChannelId);
if (channelIdFound)
{
yield return new NewObject()
{
NewObjectYear = keyValuePair.Key,
NewObjectName = keyValuePair.Value
.Select(channel => channel.ChannelName)
.FirstOrDefault(),
};
}
}
}
usage:
IEnumerable<OtherItem> otherList = ...
Dictionary<int, List<Channel>> dictionary = ...
IEnumerable<Newobject> extractedNewObjects = dictionary.ExtractNewObjects(otherList);
var someNewObjects = extractedNewObjects
.Take(5) // here we see the benefit from the yield return
.ToList();
We can see four efficiency improvements:
the use of HashSet<int> enables a very fast lookup to see if the ChannelId is in OtherList
the use of Any() stops enumerating the List<Channel> as soon as we've found a matching Channelid in the HashSet
the use of yield return makes that you don't enumerate over more elements in your Dictionary than you'll actually use.
The use of Select and FirstOrDefault when creating NewObjectName prevents exceptions if List<Channel> is empty

customize OrderBy for a List?

I have a list of items and I want to create two ways to sort them, Alphabetically and Last Modified.
Here's what I did:
// Alphabetically
tableItems = tableItems.OrderBy (MyTableItem => MyTableItem.ItemName).ToList();
reloadTable(tableItems);
// Last Modified
tableItems = tableItems.OrderBy (MyTableItem => MyTableItem.Timestamp).ToList();
reloadTable(tableItems);
and this works perfectly fine.
My problem is I want this happen to all items in the list except for one.
This one item will always be constant and I want to make sure it's ALWAYS on the top of the list.
What would I need to do for that?
if it matters, c# is the lang.
Thank you for your time.

tableItems = tableItems.OrderBy(i => i.ItemName != "yourexceptitem").ThenBy(i => i.Timestamp).ToList();
EDIT:
If you want to sort the itemname except one, do like this,
tableItems = tableItems.OrderBy(i => i.ItemName != "TestSubject3").ToList();

Other, generic solution:
public static IEnumerable<T> OrderByExcept<T>(
this IEnumerable<T> source,
Predicate<T> exceptPredicate,
Func<IEnumerable<T>, IOrderedEnumerable<T>> projection)
{
var rest = new List<T>();
using (var enumerator = source.GetEnumerator())
{
while (enumerator.MoveNext())
{
if (exceptPredicate(enumerator.Current))
{
yield return enumerator.Current;
}
else
{
rest.Add(enumerator.Current);
}
}
}
foreach (var elem in projection(rest))
{
yield return elem;
}
}
Usage:
tableItems = tableItems.OrderByExcept(
item => item.ItemName == "TestSubject3",
items => items.OrderBy(MyTableItem => MyTableItem.ItemName)
.ThenBy(MyTableItem => MyTableItem.TimeStamp))
.ToList();
Items that meets predicate will always be on the top of list, to the rest of elements projection will be applied.

Using C# lambda to find not matching elements in collection

I have two collections that I get from functions:
IEnumerable<InventoryItem> inventoryItems = get();
IEnumerable<InventoryItem> relatedItems = get();
I want to assign related items to each inventory item. But, related item can't match the inventory item itself. Meaning inventory item cant have itself for related item.
I am trying to skip the overlapping elements in the collection this way:
foreach (var item in inventoryItems)
{
InventoryItem item1 = item;
relatedItems.SkipWhile(x => x.RelatedItems.Contains(item1)).ForEach(i => item1.RelatedItems.Add(i));
Save(item);
}
This does not seem to work. Do any of you Linq user have any better suggestions.
The problem that I have is with SkipWhile(x => x.RelatedItems.Contains(item1)) part. The other part works when matching items regardless if they overlap

Where with negative condition should filter out the only item you don't need (note that comapison with != may need to be replaced with some other condition that check item identity)
item1.RelatedItems = relatedItems
.Where(x => !x.RelatedItems.Any(r => r!= item1)).ToList();

Try this:
public IEnumerable<T> GetNotMatchingElements<T>(IEnumerable<T> collection1, IEnumerable<T> collection2)
{
var combinedCollection = collection1.Union(collection2);
var filteredCollection = combinedCollection.Except(collection1.Intersect(collection2));
return filteredCollection;
}

Not sure I completely understand, but if I do, this should work:
foreach (var invItem in inventoryItems)
{
invItem.RelatedItems = relatedItems
.Where(relItem => !relItem.RelatedItems.Contains(invItem)));
Save(invItem);
}

LINQ query and Array of string

I have a array of string say:
String[] Fields=new String[]{RowField,RowField1}
In which I can use the below query to get the values by specifying the values is query i.e RowField and RowField1:
var Result = (
from x in _dataTable.AsEnumerable()
select new
{
Name = x.Field<object>(RowField),
Name1 = x.Field<object>(RowField1)
})
.Distinct();
But if suppose I have many values in the Array like:
String[] Fields= new String[]
{
RowField,
RowField1,
RowField2,
.......
RowField1000
};
How can I use the query here without specifying each of the rowfield in the query?
How can i iterate through the array items inside the LINQ?

var Result = (
from x in _dataTable.AsEnumerable()
select (
from y in Fields
select new KeyValuePair<string, object>(y, x))
.ToDictionary())
.Distinct(DictionariesComparer);
You'll also need to write your own .ToDictionary() extension method and DictionariesComparer method (as Dictionary doesn't implement IEquatable).

Essentially, you want to retrieve specific fields from a DataTable without hardcoding the field names.
The following code will return a single dictionary object per row with the fields you specify in your array. There is no need to create additional extension methods or comparers:
var result = (from row in _dataTable.AsEnumerable()
let projection = from fieldName in fields
select new {Name = fieldName, Value = row[fieldName]}
select projection.ToDictionary(p=>p.Name,p=>p.Value));
The inner select picks the field values you need from each table row and stores them in the projection variable. The outer select converts this variable in a Dictionary
You can iterate over the result to get specific fields like this:
foreach (var row in result)
{
Console.WriteLine(row["field1"]);
}
EDIT:
The above code doesn't return distinct values. It is possible to return distinct values without writing a special comparer using group by but the code is not very pretty:
var result = (from row in table.AsEnumerable()
let projection = from fieldName in fields
select new { Name = fieldName, Value = row[fieldName] }
group projection by projection.Aggregate((v, p) =>
new {
Name = v.Name + p.Name,
Value = (object)String.Format("{0}{1}", v.Value, p.Value)
}) into g
select g.FirstOrDefault().ToDictionary(p=>p.Name,p=>p.Value));
The Aggregate creates a new projection whose Name and Value properties are the concatenation of all name and value fields. The result of the aggregate is used to group all rows and return the first row of each group. It works but it is definitely ugly.
It would be better to create a simple DictionaryComparer like the following code:
public class DictionaryComparer<TKey,TValue>: EqualityComparer<Dictionary<TKey,TValue>>
{
public override bool Equals(Dictionary<TKey, TValue> x, Dictionary<TKey, TValue> y)
{
//True if both sequences of KeyValuePair items are equal
var sequenceEqual = x.SequenceEqual(y);
return sequenceEqual;
}
public override int GetHashCode(Dictionary<TKey, TValue> obj)
{
//Quickly detect differences in size, defer to Equals for dictionaries
//with matching sizes
return obj.Count;
}
}
This allows you to write:
var result = (from row in table.AsEnumerable()
let projection = from fieldName in fields
select new {Name = fieldName, Value = row[fieldName]}
select projection.ToDictionary(p=>p.Name,p=>p.Value))
.Distinct(new DictionaryComparer<string, object>());

There is no foreach linq expression. I typically create my own extension method
Something along the lines of:
public static void Foreach<T>(this IEnumerable<T> items, Action<T> action)
{
foreach(T t in items)
{
action(t);
}
}
However beware if you're planning on using this with Linq2SQL as it could create a lot of db hits!