Question

Is this the least amount of code I can use to convert a Dapper query result to a two dimensional array?

var array =
    cn.Query(@"SELECT Id, Desc FROM Things")
        .Select<object, ArrayList>(d =>
        {
            return new ArrayList {((dynamic) d).Id, ((dynamic) d).Desc };
        });

I am basically constructing a result to be returned as a json response like this:

[
  [1, "Thing one"],
  [2, "Thing two"],
  [3, "Thing two"],
]

Serialising array using:

string json = Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.SerializeObject(array); 

produces the correct result so it does the job, I’m just wondering if there’s a shortcut?

Answer 1

Not sure about the Dapper syntax, but what about dropping the ArrayList, but instead returning object[] inside the select and call ToArray() at the end:

var array =
    cn.Query(@"SELECT Id, Desc FROM Things")
        .Select(d => new object[] { d.Id, d.Desc })
        .ToArray();

This will give you an object[,].

If you dont mind a result of dynamic[,] you can use an even shorter version, my omitting specifying the actual array type:

.Select(d => new [] { d.Id, d.Desc })