LINQ's Distinct() on a particular property

Question

I am playing with LINQ to learn about it, but I can't figure out how to use Distinct when I do not have a simple list (a simple list of integers is pretty easy to do, this is not the question). What I if want to use Distinct on a list of an Object on one or more properties of the object?

Example: If an object is Person, with Property Id. How can I get all Person and use Distinct on them with the property Id of the object?

Person1: Id=1, Name="Test1"
Person2: Id=1, Name="Test1"
Person3: Id=2, Name="Test2"

How can I get just Person1 and Person3? Is that possible?

If it's not possible with LINQ, what would be the best way to have a list of Person depending on some of its properties in .NET 3.5?

Answer 1

What if I want to obtain a distinct list based on one or more properties?

Simple! You want to group them and pick a winner out of the group.

List<Person> distinctPeople = allPeople
  .GroupBy(p => p.PersonId)
  .Select(g => g.First())
  .ToList();

If you want to define groups on multiple properties, here's how:

List<Person> distinctPeople = allPeople
  .GroupBy(p => new {p.PersonId, p.FavoriteColor} )
  .Select(g => g.First())
  .ToList();