Can't convert ListBox.ObjectCollection to a (typed) array

Question

I want to convert the items to a String array or the type that I used to fill the ListBox.DataSource. The type has overridden ToString() but I can\'t seems to get it convert

Answer 1

string[] a = ListBox1.Items.Cast().ToArray();

Of course, if all you plan to do with a is iterate over it, you don't have to call ToArray(). You can directly use the IEnumerable returned from Cast(), e.g.:

foreach (var s in ListBox1.Items.Cast()) {
    do_something_with(s);
}

Or, if you have some way to convert strings to Contacts, you can do something like this:

IEnumerable c = ListBox1.Items.Cast().Select(s => StringToContact(s));