Question

I have a List<NameClass> that stores a collection of NameClass items with a property called Name in the class. What I’m trying to do is write a Linq query that will pull all the names that start with Jones, but only if there are 3 or more occurrences. For example, if my list had the following items:

Name
-----------
Jones
Jonestown
Smith
Hector
Jones
Smith
Smith

I am looking for a C# function that I can call like this:

GetNames("Jones");

And it should return:

Jones
Jonestown
Jones

And if I run this:

GetNames("Smith");

It should return:

Smith
Smith
Smith

And if I run this:

GetNames("Hector");

It should return nothing since Hector isn’t in the list 3 or more times.

Any help writing this LINQ query would be appreciated!

Answer 1

string searchString = "Jones";
string lowerSS = searchString.ToLower();

List<NameClass> nameClasses; 

var results = nameClasses.Where(nc => nc.Name.ToLower().StartsWith(lowerSS));

if(results != null && results.Count() >= 3)
{
    return results;
}
else
{
    return null;
}