Foreach loop, determine which is the last iteration of the loop

Question

I have a foreach loop and need to execute some logic when the last item is chosen from the List, e.g.:

 foreach (Item result in Mod         


        

Answer 1

var last = objList.LastOrDefault();
foreach (var item in objList)
{
  if (item.Equals(last))
  {
  
  }
}

Answer 2

Making some small adjustments to the excelent code of Jon Skeet, you can even make it smarter by allowing access to the previous and next item. Of course this means you'll have to read ahead 1 item in the implementation. For performance reasons, the previous and next item are only retained for the current iteration item. It goes like this:

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
// Based on source: http://jonskeet.uk/csharp/miscutil/

namespace Generic.Utilities
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Static class to make creation easier. If possible though, use the extension
    /// method in SmartEnumerableExt.
    /// </summary>
    public static class SmartEnumerable
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Extension method to make life easier.
        /// </summary>
        /// <typeparam name="T">Type of enumerable</typeparam>
        /// <param name="source">Source enumerable</param>
        /// <returns>A new SmartEnumerable of the appropriate type</returns>
        public static SmartEnumerable<T> Create<T>(IEnumerable<T> source)
        {
            return new SmartEnumerable<T>(source);
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Type chaining an IEnumerable&lt;T&gt; to allow the iterating code
    /// to detect the first and last entries simply.
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T">Type to iterate over</typeparam>
    public class SmartEnumerable<T> : IEnumerable<SmartEnumerable<T>.Entry>
    {

        /// <summary>
        /// Enumerable we proxy to
        /// </summary>
        readonly IEnumerable<T> enumerable;

        /// <summary>
        /// Constructor.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="enumerable">Collection to enumerate. Must not be null.</param>
        public SmartEnumerable(IEnumerable<T> enumerable)
        {
            if (enumerable == null)
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("enumerable");
            }
            this.enumerable = enumerable;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Returns an enumeration of Entry objects, each of which knows
        /// whether it is the first/last of the enumeration, as well as the
        /// current value and next/previous values.
        /// </summary>
        public IEnumerator<Entry> GetEnumerator()
        {
            using (IEnumerator<T> enumerator = enumerable.GetEnumerator())
            {
                if (!enumerator.MoveNext())
                {
                    yield break;
                }
                bool isFirst = true;
                bool isLast = false;
                int index = 0;
                Entry previous = null;

                T current = enumerator.Current;
                isLast = !enumerator.MoveNext();
                var entry = new Entry(isFirst, isLast, current, index++, previous);                
                isFirst = false;
                previous = entry;

                while (!isLast)
                {
                    T next = enumerator.Current;
                    isLast = !enumerator.MoveNext();
                    var entry2 = new Entry(isFirst, isLast, next, index++, entry);
                    entry.SetNext(entry2);
                    yield return entry;

                    previous.UnsetLinks();
                    previous = entry;
                    entry = entry2;                    
                }

                yield return entry;
                previous.UnsetLinks();
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Non-generic form of GetEnumerator.
        /// </summary>
        IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
        {
            return GetEnumerator();
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Represents each entry returned within a collection,
        /// containing the value and whether it is the first and/or
        /// the last entry in the collection's. enumeration
        /// </summary>
        public class Entry
        {
            #region Fields
            private readonly bool isFirst;
            private readonly bool isLast;
            private readonly T value;
            private readonly int index;
            private Entry previous;
            private Entry next = null;
            #endregion

            #region Properties
            /// <summary>
            /// The value of the entry.
            /// </summary>
            public T Value { get { return value; } }

            /// <summary>
            /// Whether or not this entry is first in the collection's enumeration.
            /// </summary>
            public bool IsFirst { get { return isFirst; } }

            /// <summary>
            /// Whether or not this entry is last in the collection's enumeration.
            /// </summary>
            public bool IsLast { get { return isLast; } }

            /// <summary>
            /// The 0-based index of this entry (i.e. how many entries have been returned before this one)
            /// </summary>
            public int Index { get { return index; } }

            /// <summary>
            /// Returns the previous entry.
            /// Only available for the CURRENT entry!
            /// </summary>
            public Entry Previous { get { return previous; } }

            /// <summary>
            /// Returns the next entry for the current iterator.
            /// Only available for the CURRENT entry!
            /// </summary>
            public Entry Next { get { return next; } }
            #endregion

            #region Constructors
            internal Entry(bool isFirst, bool isLast, T value, int index, Entry previous)
            {
                this.isFirst = isFirst;
                this.isLast = isLast;
                this.value = value;
                this.index = index;
                this.previous = previous;
            }
            #endregion

            #region Methods
            /// <summary>
            /// Fix the link to the next item of the IEnumerable
            /// </summary>
            /// <param name="entry"></param>
            internal void SetNext(Entry entry)
            {
                next = entry;
            }

            /// <summary>
            /// Allow previous and next Entry to be garbage collected by setting them to null
            /// </summary>
            internal void UnsetLinks()
            {
                previous = null;
                next = null;
            }

            /// <summary>
            /// Returns "(index)value"
            /// </summary>
            /// <returns></returns>
            public override string ToString()
            {
                return String.Format("({0}){1}", Index, Value);
            }
            #endregion

        }
    }
}

Answer 3

As Shimmy has pointed out, using Last() can be a performance problem, for instance if your collection is the live result of a LINQ expression. To prevent multiple iterations, you could use a "ForEach" extension method like this:

var elements = new[] { "A", "B", "C" };
elements.ForEach((element, info) => {
    if (!info.IsLast) {
        Console.WriteLine(element);
    } else {
        Console.WriteLine("Last one: " + element);
    }
});

The extension method looks like this (as an added bonus, it will also tell you the index and if you're looking at the first element):

public static class EnumerableExtensions {
    public delegate void ElementAction<in T>(T element, ElementInfo info);

    public static void ForEach<T>(this IEnumerable<T> elements, ElementAction<T> action) {
        using (IEnumerator<T> enumerator = elements.GetEnumerator())
        {
            bool isFirst = true;
            bool hasNext = enumerator.MoveNext();
            int index = 0;
            while (hasNext)
            {
                T current = enumerator.Current;
                hasNext = enumerator.MoveNext();
                action(current, new ElementInfo(index, isFirst, !hasNext));
                isFirst = false;
                index++;
            }
        }
    }

    public struct ElementInfo {
        public ElementInfo(int index, bool isFirst, bool isLast)
            : this() {
            Index = index;
            IsFirst = isFirst;
            IsLast = isLast;
        }

        public int Index { get; private set; }
        public bool IsFirst { get; private set; }
        public bool IsLast { get; private set; }
    }
}

Answer 4

Using Last() on certain types will loop thru the entire collection!
Meaning that if you make a foreach and call Last(), you looped twice! which I'm sure you'd like to avoid in big collections.

Then the solution is to use a do while loop:

using var enumerator = collection.GetEnumerator();

var last = !enumerator.MoveNext();
T current;

while (!last)
{
  current = enumerator.Current;        

  //process item

  last = !enumerator.MoveNext();        
  if(last)
  {
    //additional processing for last item
  }
}

So unless the collection type is of type IList<T> the Last() function will iterate thru all collection elements.

Test

If your collection provides random access (e.g. implements IList<T>), you can also check your item as follows.

if(collection is IList<T> list)
  return collection[^1]; //replace with collection.Count -1 in pre-C#8 apps

Answer 5

Based on @Shimmy's response, I created an extension method that is the solution that everyone wants. It is simple, easy to use, and only loops through the collection once.

internal static class EnumerableExtensions
{
    public static void ForEachLast<T>(this IEnumerable<T> collection, Action<T>? actionExceptLast = null, Action<T>? actionOnLast = null)
    {
        using var enumerator = collection.GetEnumerator();
        var isNotLast = enumerator.MoveNext();
        while (isNotLast)
        {
            var current = enumerator.Current;
            isNotLast = enumerator.MoveNext();
            var action = isNotLast ? actionExceptLast : actionOnLast;
            action?.Invoke(current);
        }
    }
}

This works on any IEnumerable<T>. Usage looks like this:

var items = new[] {1, 2, 3, 4, 5};
items.ForEachLast(i => Console.WriteLine($"{i},"), i => Console.WriteLine(i));

Output looks like:

1,
2,
3,
4,
5

Additionally, you can make this into a Select style method. Then, reuse that extension in the ForEach. That code looks like this:

internal static class EnumerableExtensions
{
    public static void ForEachLast<T>(this IEnumerable<T> collection, Action<T>? actionExceptLast = null, Action<T>? actionOnLast = null) =>
        // ReSharper disable once IteratorMethodResultIsIgnored
        collection.SelectLast(i => { actionExceptLast?.Invoke(i); return true; }, i => { actionOnLast?.Invoke(i); return true; }).ToArray();

    public static IEnumerable<TResult> SelectLast<T, TResult>(this IEnumerable<T> collection, Func<T, TResult>? selectorExceptLast = null, Func<T, TResult>? selectorOnLast = null)
    {
        using var enumerator = collection.GetEnumerator();
        var isNotLast = enumerator.MoveNext();
        while (isNotLast)
        {
            var current = enumerator.Current;
            isNotLast = enumerator.MoveNext();
            var selector = isNotLast ? selectorExceptLast : selectorOnLast;
            //https://stackoverflow.com/a/32580613/294804
            if (selector != null)
            {
                yield return selector.Invoke(current);
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 6

Jon Skeet created a SmartEnumerable<T> type a while back to solve this exact issue. You can see it's implementation here:

http://codeblog.jonskeet.uk/2007/07/27/smart-enumerations/

To download: http://www.yoda.arachsys.com/csharp/miscutil/