Question

I wish to search to see if a string called tempName is already contained in a List of user objects. These user objects of type userClass contain a string data method Name whose value i’d like to check against tempName.

How is this done in LINQ?

thanks

Using traditional for loops i can do it like this:

bool already = false;
for (int i = 0; i < userList.Count; i++)
{
    if (Name == userList[i].name) 
        already = true;
}

Answer 1

You can use Enumerable.Any, which uses an expression lambda (the bit with user =>) to specify the function used to test each user, and returns a boolean value:

string name = "the name you're searching for";
bool already = userList.Any(user => user.Name.Contains(name));

This has the (performance) advantage that it doesn’t enumerate over all elements; it bails out once it finds the first element that satisfies the condition you specify.