Select method in List<t> Collection

Question

I have an asp.net application, and now I am using datasets for data manipulation. I recently started to convert this dataset to a List collection. But, in some places it doesn't work. One is that in my old version I am using datarow[] drow = dataset.datatable.select(searchcriteria). But in the List collection there is no method available for finding particular values. Is there any way for me to select some values according with my search criteria? I want to know if this is possible. Please help me.

Answer 1

Well, to start with List<T> does have the FindAll and ConvertAll methods - but the more idiomatic, modern approach is to use LINQ:

// Find all the people older than 30
var query1 = list.Where(person => person.Age > 30);

// Find each person's name
var query2 = list.Select(person => person.Name);

You'll need a using directive in your file to make this work:

using System.Linq;

Note that these don't use strings to express predicates and projects - they use delegates, usually created from lambda expressions as above.

If lambda expressions and LINQ are new to you, I would suggest you get a book covering LINQ first, such as LINQ in Action, Pro LINQ, C# 4 in a Nutshell or my own C# in Depth. You certainly can learn LINQ just from web tutorials, but I think it's such an important technology, it's worth taking the time to learn it thoroughly.