Question

I have the following C# code:

List<string> names = new List<string>();
if (myObject.myClass != null)
{
     foreach (var foo in myObject.myClass.subClass)
     {
          names.Add(foo.Name);
     }
}

Is there a shorter way of writing this without the need to iterate through each instance of subClass to add myObject.myClass.subClass.Name into the names List<string> object?

Also baring in mind myObject.myClass can be null.

Answer 1

It sounds like you could use:

List<string> names = myObject.myClass == null
    ? new List<string>()
    : myObject.myClass.subclass.Select(x => x.Name).ToList();

Note that this expression: myObject.myClass.subclass suggests you’re violating the Law of Demeter fairly nastily – and I hope the naming doesn’t actually reflect reality though… if you could provide a more indicative set of expressions, that would help a lot.