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Linq Query to Return Nested Arrays having specific Property Value

I've been scouring multiple resources and can't figure this one out; I am trying to filter an Array of objects based on a Property that is nested a couple levels deep. I've simplified things, so let's say I have the following classes:
class A {
B[] bb;
}
class B
C[] cc;
}
class C {
string value;
}
And now the code:
A[] aa = ...;
A[] filteredAa = aa.Where(... //NEED HELP HERE
What I want to do is filter the aa array such that it gives me only those A elements that have at least one B element that have at least one C element has a value of "hello" (e.g. aa[0] would be included in the filteredAa array if aa[0].bb[3].cc[2].value = "hello").
Can this type of filtering even be done? I think and hope this makes sense, but please let me know if I can clarify any further.

You need to use Any - and it sounds like you need to use it twice:
var query = aa.Where(a => a.bb.Any(b => b.cc.Any(c => c.value == "hello")));
So working up from the inside:
A C object is useful if its value is "hello"
A B object is useful if any of its C values are useful
An A object is useful if any of its B values are useful
Where filters a sequence of A objects, leaving only the useful ones
You can use ToArray() at the end if you really want an array, but I would typically use ToList or just keep it as an IEnumerable<A>.

Try this:
A[] filteredAa = aa.Where(a => a.bb.Any(b => b.cc.Any(c => c.value == "hello"))).ToArray();

If you are looking for where Value is a specific value:
var result = aa.Where(a=>a.bb.Any(b => b.cc.Any(c => c.Value == "hello"));
If you just want to get all of those that have any value:
var result = aa.Where(a=>a.bb.Any(b => b.cc.Any(c => !string.IsNullOrEmpty(c.Value)));

filteredAa = aa.Where(x => x.bb.Any(y => y.cc.Any(z => z.value == "hello")))

Search within a list in C# [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
How can I find a specific element in a List<T>?
(8 answers)
Closed 6 years ago.
I have a list containing the following structure.
class CompareDesignGroup
{
string FieldId;
string Caption;
}
The list is containing items of the above structure.
Is it possible to retrieve an element of the list if FieldId is known?

You can use the Find method on the generic list class. The find method takes a predicate that lets you filter/search the list for a single item.
List<CompareDesignGroup> list = // ..;
CompareDesignGroup item = list.Find(c => c.FieldId == "SomeFieldId");
item will be null if there is no matching item in the list.
If you need to find more than one item you can use the FindAll method:
List<CompareDesignGroup> list = // ..;
List<CompareDesignGroup> result= list.FindAll(c => c.FieldId == "SomeFieldId");

You can use LINQ like this:
CompareDesignGroup result = yourList.FirstOrDefault(x => x.FieldId == yourKnownId);
If you use the FirstOrDefault method the result will be null when list doesn't contain a record with a known id. So before using result check if it is not null.

There are a plethora of methods to find an item inside a list.
LINQ provides extensions method useful to work with collections that does not provide their own search features (or when you do not have the collection itself but a generic interface like IEnumerable<T>). If you have a List<CompareDesignGroup> object and you'll work on that object you can use the methods provided by that class (specialized methods are almost always faster than LINQ methods, they know collection's internal structure and does not have to rely on many abstraction layers).
In all examples I'll perform a culture invariant and case sensitive comparison for FieldId to a hypothetical id parameter. This may not be what you need and you may have to change according to your requirements.
Using List<T>
Given a list declared as:
List<CompareDesignGroup>() list = new List<CompareDesignGroup>();
To find first element that matches the search criteria (it'll return null if no items have been found):
CompareDesignGroup item = list.Find(
x => String.Equals(x.FieldId, id, StringComparison.InvariantCulture));
To find all the elements that matches the search criteria:
List<CompareDesignGroup> items = list.FindAll(
x => String.Equals(x.FieldId, id, StringComparison.InvariantCulture));
Using IEnumerable<T> (or IList<T>, for example)
Given a list declared as:
IEnumerable<CompareDesignGroup> list = ...
To find first element that matches the search criteria (null if no items have been found):
CompareDesignGroup item = list.FirstOrDefault(
x => String.Equals(x.FieldId, id, StringComparison.InvariantCulture));
To find the first element that matches the search criteria (or throw an exception if no items have been found):
CompareDesignGroup item = list.First(
x => String.Equals(x.FieldId, id, StringComparison.InvariantCulture));
To find all elements that matches the search criteria:
IEnumerable<CompareDesignGroup> item = list.Where(
x => String.Equals(x.FieldId, id, StringComparison.InvariantCulture));
There are many LINQ extensions methods, I suggest to take a look to them all to find the one that better suits your needs.

You can use Where and then you can use FirstOrDefault. That is an LINQ expression.
var ls = new List<CompareDesignGroup>();
var result = ls.Where(a => a.FieldId=="123").FirstOrDefault();
Or SingleOrDefault to get the item you want. Like this:
var ls = new List<CompareDesignGroup>();
var result = ls.Where(a => a.FieldId=="123").SingleOrDefault()
Or even simpler:
var result = ls.SingleOrDefault(a => a.FieldId=="123");
var result2 = ls.FirstOrDefault(a => a.FieldId=="123");

Yes. Use LINQ or the built-in functionalities of List.

List<CompareDesignGroup> listData = new List<CompareDesignGroup>(); // init the data
var result = listData.Where(x=> String.Equals(x.FieldID,"FIELDID KNOWN VALUE"); // gets all data
var first = listData.FirstOrDefault(x=> String.Equals(x.FieldID,"FIELDID KNOWN VALUE"); // gets first search result

Aggregate methods to use with IEnumerable lists

Is there a way to "convert" (return) an IEnumerable list of, e.g., strings to an IEnumerable list of a different type when that different type accepts the former type in its constructor?
For example, the DataTable.Columns.AddRange() method accepts only lists of columns. Is there a way to return a DataColumn list by offering a string list using LINQ or some sort of aggregate function? I imagine the code would roughly do the following, but in one line:
var columnList = new List<DataColumn>();
foreach (var item in myStringList)
{
columnList.Add(item);
}
return columnList;
Likewise, is there an aggregate method that will take a list and run each of its members against a specific method? For example, I am looking for a one line way to perform the following similar foreach loop:
foreach (var item in myStringList)
{
myDataTable.Columns.Add(item);
}
Obviously, I am looking for generic answers that are not actually dependent on data columns or strings.

You can write
var newList = list.ConvertAll(x => new Something(x));
list.ForEach(x => DoSomething(x));
These methods are defined by th List<T> class.
If you have an arbitrary IEnumerable<T>, you can use LINQ:
var newEnumerable = enumerable.Select(x => new Something(x));

Call Enumerable.Aggregate
List<DataColumn> result = myStringList.Aggregate(
new List<DataColumn>(),
(list, item) => { list.Add(item); return list; }
);
return result;
That said, foreach statement is better.

Yes, in fact, although not all of them are LINQ specific. ForEach is just a List method. For your two examples:
myStringList.ForEach(x => columnList.Add(x));
// assumes myStringList is a List<T>... otherwise convert your enumerable using ToList()
The ForEach method takes an Action and lets you perform some logic on each item. So if you want to do transformations, it's easy enough combining with select:
myStringList.Select(x => new DataColumn(x))
.ToList()
.ForEach(x => columnList.Add(x));
// transforms each element of the string by adding some text, then calling foreach
// on the items

myStringList.ForEach(item => myDataTable.Columns.Add(item));
EDIT: that's not Linq. Sorry, my mistake.

Select from a List<T>

I'm sure there's an wasy way of doing this (I'm guessing one of the extension methods?), but am struggling to find it with Google.
Basically I have a List of custom classes; I want to select some items from this into a new List where one of the properties is equal to any value in another List.
Here's a (simplified) quick example of what I'm trying to do:
public class Job
{
public int Number;
public string ClientCompanyName;
}
List<Job> lstJobs = new List<Job>();
List<Job> lstCompare = new List<Job>();
normally I would do something like:
List<Job> lstFiltered = new List<Job>();
foreach(Job jobThis in lstCompare)
{
foreach(jobComp in lstCompare)
{
if(jobThis.Number = jobComp.Number)
{
lstFiltered.Add(jobThis);
}
}
}
Is there an extension method that neatens this last bit up into (ideally) a single line?
Cheers

You can use Intersect() for this:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb460136.aspx

Use Intersect.
For it to work with your custom comparison you either need to implement IEquatable<T> in your class or create a new class the implements IEqualityComparer<T> for your class and pass that to the overload of Intersect.

Jez,
You might be able to use the LINQ intersect function, or try:
var matches = from jobs in lstJobs
join comp in lstCompare on jobs.Number equals comp.Number
select jobs;
or LINQ syntax:
var matches = lstJobs.Join(lstCompare, jobs => jobs.Number,
comp => comp.Number, (jobs, comp) => jobs);
and here was reSharper's version based on your original loop:
List<Job> lstFiltered = (lstJobs.SelectMany(jobThis => lstCompare,
(jobThis, jobComp) => new {jobThis, jobComp})
.Where(#t => #t.jobThis.Number == #t.jobComp.Number)
.Select(#t => #t.jobThis)).ToList();
slightly verbose, but another way to skin the cat.
[edited] as had set to new list, rather than selected elements - doh

var lstFiltered = lstJobs
.Where(job => lstCompare.Any(item => item.Number == job.Number))
.ToList();
The above solution works well if the number of items in the lstCompare is small. For bigger comparison lists you may want to use some hash based collection.
var compareSet = new HashSet<int>(lstCompare.Select(item => item.Number));
var lstFiltered = lstJobs
.Where(job => compareSet.Contains(job.Number))
.ToList();
If the comparison condition is more complex or it is needed in several places, you should create a comparer class that implements IEqualityComparer<T>. Then you could use the Intersect() method as others have already suggested. However, it is not functionally identical with the above solutions. It returns only distinct elements while my solutions return all matching elements. It may be a significant difference in some applications.
My second example can be easily changed to use IEqualityComparer<T> if necessary. The HashSet<T> takes the comparer as second parameter.

ArrayList C# Contains method query

I have an ObservableCollection<myClass> list. It contains a 10 objects of type MyClass.
class MyClass
{
string name;
int age;
}
If I want to find all items in list where age = 10, can I use the Contains method?
If yes how can I do this without using iteration?

var age10 = list.Where(i => i.age == 10);
Lots more queries here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vcsharp/aa336746.aspx

No, Contains only looks for a specific value, not something matching a predicate. It also only finds one value rather than every matching value.
You can, however, use Where from LINQ to Objects, assuming you're on .NET 3.5 or higher:
foreach (var item in list.Where(x => x.Age == 10))
{
// Do something with item
}

Since ObservableCollection<T> implements Collection<T> which implements IEnumerable<T>...you can use the LINQ to Object extension methods to make this simple (even though it will use iteration in the background):
var results = list.Where(m => m.age == 10);

As others have stated, using .Where(i => i.Age == 10) would be the correct way to get the result stated in the question. You would use .Contains() to check your collection for a specific instance of your class.

You can use linq to do this but not Contains
var foo = from bar in myCollection where bar.age == 10 select bar;