Question

Automapper easily handles mapping one list of object types to another list of different objects types, but is it possible to have it map to an existing list using an ID as a key?

Answer 1

I have not found better way than the following.

Here are source and destination.

public class Source
{
    public int Id { get; set; } 
    public string Foo { get; set; }
}

public class Destination 
{ 
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Foo { get; set; }
}

Define converter (You should change List<> to whatever type you are using).

public class CollectionConverter: ITypeConverter<List<Source>, List<Destination>>
{
    public List<Destination> Convert(ResolutionContext context)
    {
        var destinationCollection = (List<Destination>)context.DestinationValue;
        if(destinationCollection == null)
            destinationCollection = new List<Destination>();
        var sourceCollection = (List<Source>)context.SourceValue;
        foreach(var source in sourceCollection)
        {
            Destination matchedDestination = null;

            foreach(var destination in destinationCollection)
            {
                if(destination.Id == source.Id)
                {
                    Mapper.Map(source, destination);
                    matchedDestination = destination;
                    break;
                }
            }
            if(matchedDestination == null)
                destinationCollection.Add(Mapper.Map<Destination>(source));
        }
        return destinationCollection;
    }
}

And here is actual mapping configuration and example.

Mapper.CreateMap<Source,Destination>();
Mapper.CreateMap<List<Source>,List<Destination>>().ConvertUsing(new CollectionConverter());

var sourceCollection = new List<Source>
{
    new Source{ Id = 1, Foo = "Match"},
    new Source{ Id = 2, Foo = "DoesNotMatchWithDestination"}
};
var destinationCollection = new List<Destination>
{
    new Destination{ Id = 1, Foo = "Match"},
    new Destination{ Id = 3, Foo = "DoeNotMatchWithSource"}
};
var mergedCollection = Mapper.Map(sourceCollection, destinationCollection);

You should get the following result.