Question

Given a datasource like that:

var c = new Car[]
{
  new Car{ Color="Blue", Price=28000},
  new Car{ Color="Red", Price=54000},
  new Car{ Color="Pink", Price=9999},
  // ..
};

How can I find the index of the first car satisfying a certain condition with LINQ?

EDIT:

I could think of something like this but it looks horrible:

int firstItem = someItems.Select((item, index) => new    
{    
    ItemName = item.Color,    
    Position = index    
}).Where(i => i.ItemName == "purple")    
  .First()    
  .Position;

Will it be the best to solve this with a plain old loop?

Answer 1

An IEnumerable is not an ordered set.
Although most IEnumerables are ordered, some (such as Dictionary or HashSet) are not.

Therefore, LINQ does not have an IndexOf method.

However, you can write one yourself:

///<summary>Finds the index of the first item matching an expression in an enumerable.</summary>
///<param name="items">The enumerable to search.</param>
///<param name="predicate">The expression to test the items against.</param>
///<returns>The index of the first matching item, or -1 if no items match.</returns>
public static int FindIndex<T>(this IEnumerable<T> items, Func<T, bool> predicate) {
    if (items == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("items");
    if (predicate == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("predicate");

    int retVal = 0;
    foreach (var item in items) {
        if (predicate(item)) return retVal;
        retVal++;
    }
    return -1;
}
///<summary>Finds the index of the first occurrence of an item in an enumerable.</summary>
///<param name="items">The enumerable to search.</param>
///<param name="item">The item to find.</param>
///<returns>The index of the first matching item, or -1 if the item was not found.</returns>
public static int IndexOf<T>(this IEnumerable<T> items, T item) { return items.FindIndex(i => EqualityComparer<T>.Default.Equals(item, i)); }