How to remove elements from a generic list while iterating over it?

Question

I am looking for a better pattern for working with a list of elements which each need processed and then depending on the outcome are removed from

Answer 1

Trace the elements to be removed with a property, and remove them all after process.

using System.Linq;

List<MyProperty> _Group = new List<MyProperty>();
// ... add elements

bool cond = true;
foreach (MyProperty currObj in _Group)
{
    if (cond) 
    {
        // SET - element can be deleted
        currObj.REMOVE_ME = true;
    }
}
// RESET
_Group.RemoveAll(r => r.REMOVE_ME);

Answer 2

Iterate your list in reverse with a for loop:

for (int i = safePendingList.Count - 1; i >= 0; i--)
{
    // some code
    // safePendingList.RemoveAt(i);
}

Example:

var list = new List<int>(Enumerable.Range(1, 10));
for (int i = list.Count - 1; i >= 0; i--)
{
    if (list[i] > 5)
        list.RemoveAt(i);
}
list.ForEach(i => Console.WriteLine(i));

Alternately, you can use the RemoveAll method with a predicate to test against:

safePendingList.RemoveAll(item => item.Value == someValue);

Here's a simplified example to demonstrate:

var list = new List<int>(Enumerable.Range(1, 10));
Console.WriteLine("Before:");
list.ForEach(i => Console.WriteLine(i));
list.RemoveAll(i => i > 5);
Console.WriteLine("After:");
list.ForEach(i => Console.WriteLine(i));

Answer 3

Using .ToList() will make a copy of your list, as explained in this question: ToList()-- Does it Create a New List?

By using ToList(), you can remove from your original list, because you're actually iterating over a copy.

foreach (var item in listTracked.ToList()) {    

        if (DetermineIfRequiresRemoval(item)) {
            listTracked.Remove(item)
        }

     }

Answer 4

By assuming that predicate is a Boolean property of an element, that if it is true, then the element should be removed:

        int i = 0;
        while (i < list.Count())
        {
            if (list[i].predicate == true)
            {
                list.RemoveAt(i);
                continue;
            }
            i++;
        }

Answer 5

Reverse iteration should be the first thing to come to mind when you want to remove elements from a Collection while iterating over it.

Luckily, there is a more elegant solution than writing a for loop which involves needless typing and can be error prone.

ICollection<int> test = new List<int>(new int[] {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10});

foreach (int myInt in test.Reverse<int>())
{
    if (myInt % 2 == 0)
    {
        test.Remove(myInt);
    }
}

Answer 6

I would reassign the list from a LINQ query that filtered out the elements you didn't want to keep.

list = list.Where(item => ...).ToList();

Unless the list is very large there should be no significant performance problems in doing this.