What's your favorite LINQ to Objects operator which is not built-in? [closed]

Answer 1

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the MoreLINQ project yet. It was started by Jon Skeet and has gained some developers along the way. From the project's page:

LINQ to Objects is missing a few desirable features.

This project will enhance LINQ to Objects with extra methods, in a manner which keeps to the spirit of LINQ.

Take a look at the Operators Overview wiki page for a list of implemented operators.

It is certainly a good way to learn from some clean and elegant source code.

Answer 2

Shuffle

public static IEnumerable<T> Shuffle<T>(this IEnumerable<T> items)
{
    var random = new Random();
    return items.OrderBy(x => random.Next());
}

EDIT: It seems there are several issues with the above implementation. Here is an improved version based @LukeH's code and comments from @ck and @Strilanc.

private static Random _rand = new Random();
public static IEnumerable<T> Shuffle<T>(this IEnumerable<T> source)
{
    var items = source == null ? new T[] { } : source.ToArray();
    var count = items.Length;
    while(count > 0)
    {
        int toReturn = _rand.Next(0, count);
        yield return items[toReturn];
        items[toReturn] = items[count - 1];
        count--;
    }
}

Answer 3

Each

Nothing for the purists, but darn it's useful!

 public static void Each<T>(this IEnumerable<T> items, Action<T> action)
 {
   foreach (var i in items)
      action(i);
 }

Answer 4

ToList and ToDictionary with Initial Capacity

ToList and ToDictionary overloads that expose the underlying collection classes' initial capacity. Occasionally useful when source length is known or bounded.

public static List<TSource> ToList<TSource>(
    this IEnumerable<TSource> source, 
    int capacity)
{
    if (source == null)
    {
        throw new ArgumentNullException("source");
    }
    var list = new List<TSource>(capacity);
    list.AddRange(source);
    return list;
}     

public static Dictionary<TKey, TSource> ToDictionary<TSource, TKey>(
    this IEnumerable<TSource> source, 
    Func<TSource, TKey> keySelector, 
    int capacity,
    IEqualityComparer<TKey> comparer = null)
{
    return source.ToDictionary<TSource, TKey, TSource>(
                  keySelector, x => x, capacity, comparer);
}

public static Dictionary<TKey, TElement> ToDictionary<TSource, TKey, TElement>(
    this IEnumerable<TSource> source, 
    Func<TSource, TKey> keySelector, 
    Func<TSource, TElement> elementSelector,
    int capacity,
    IEqualityComparer<TKey> comparer = null)
{
    if (source == null)
    {
        throw new ArgumentNullException("source");
    }
    if (keySelector == null)
    {
        throw new ArgumentNullException("keySelector");
    }
    if (elementSelector == null)
    {
        throw new ArgumentNullException("elementSelector");
    }
    var dictionary = new Dictionary<TKey, TElement>(capacity, comparer);
    foreach (TSource local in source)
    {
        dictionary.Add(keySelector(local), elementSelector(local));
    }
    return dictionary;
}

Answer 5

Order

/// <summary>Sorts the elements of a sequence in ascending order.</summary>
public static IEnumerable<T> Order<T>(this IEnumerable<T> source)
{
    return source.OrderBy(x => x);
}

Answer 6

WhereIf

Optional Where clause on IEnumerable and IQueryable. Avoids if statements when building predicates & lambdas for a query. Useful when you don't know at compile time whether a filter should apply.

public static IEnumerable<TSource> WhereIf<TSource>(
            this IEnumerable<TSource> source, bool condition,
            Func<TSource, bool> predicate)
{
    return condition ? source.Where(predicate) : source;
}

Useage:

var custs = Customers.WhereIf(someBool, x=>x.EyeColor=="Green");

LINQ WhereIf At ExtensionMethod.NET and borrowed from Andrew's blog.