Override IEnumerable Where

Question

I\'ve written a class that implements IEnumerable :

public class MyEnumerable : IEnumerable
{ 
    IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
    {
         


        

Answer 1

Sure - just add a Where method to MyEnumerable. The Linq Where method is an extension method, so it's not technically an override. you're "hiding" the linq method.

public class MyEnumerable : IEnumerable<MyClass>
{ 
    IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
    {
        return this.GetEnumerator();
    }
    public IEnumerator<MyClass> GetEnumerator()
    {
        //Enumerate
    }

    public MyEnumerable Where()
    {
       // implement `Where`
    }
}

There are some caveats, though:

• Your Where method will only be called if the declared type is MyEnumerable - it will not be called on variables of type IEnumerable<MyClass> (or any collection that implements it, like List<MyClass>
• There are several overloads of Where that will need to be implemented as well if you want to maintain consistently with Linq.

Answer 2

Update

From your comment your enumerator is a lazy file enumerator and you want to be able to select items from it based on a predicate and still have the laziness.

You could create another class inheriting that class or an interface to help with this.

Here is an example

public class FileItem
{
    //Some properties
}

public interface IFileEnumerator : IEnumerable<FileItem>
{
    IFileEnumerator Where(Func<FileItem, bool> predicate);
}

public class FileEnumerator : IFileEnumerator
{
    private readonly string fileName;

    public FileEnumerator(string fileName)
    {
        this.fileName = fileName;
    }

    IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
    {
        return this.GetEnumerator();
    }

    public IEnumerator<FileItem> GetEnumerator()
    {
        var items = new List<FileItem>();

        //Read from file and add lines to items

        return items.GetEnumerator();
    }

    public IFileEnumerator Where(Func<FileItem, bool> predicate)
    {
        return new MemoryEnumerator(ToEnumerable(GetEnumerator()).Where(predicate));
    }

    private static IEnumerable<T> ToEnumerable<T>(IEnumerator<T> enumerator) 
    {
        while (enumerator.MoveNext()) 
        {
            yield return enumerator.Current;
        }
    }
}

public class MemoryEnumerator : IFileEnumerator
{
    private readonly IEnumerable<FileItem> items;

    public MemoryEnumerator(IEnumerable<FileItem> items)
    {
        this.items = items;
    }

    IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
    {
        return this.GetEnumerator();
    }

    public IEnumerator<FileItem> GetEnumerator()
    {
        return items.GetEnumerator();
    }

    public IFileEnumerator Where(Func<FileItem, bool> predicate)
    {
        return new MemoryEnumerator(items.Where(predicate));
    }
}