Question

I have a generic list of objects, for example: List<Photo> and want to convert this to something I can use on an MVC view.

In the form (basic example):

<% foreach (var row in PhotoList) { %>

// Render Matrix (using photo properties)
<tr>
    <% foreach(photo in row) { %>
    <td><%=photo.Name%></td>
    <% } %>
</tr>

<% } %>

I have thought of doing this manually, using something like List<List<Photo>>(), but is there a nifty way of doing this using LINQ? Supplying the number of columns, rows and page a paged Matrix Display, or other better ideas.

Answer 1

You could create a matrix using GroupBy() given the number of columns x you want:

photos.Select( (photo, index) => new { Index = index, Photo = photo })
      .GroupBy( n=> n.Index / x)
      .Select( g => g.Select( p=> p.Photo).ToList())
      .ToList();

The result is a List<List<Photo>> with x photos in each inner list. You should then just be able to use two foreach loops to render them (as in your example).