Question

I’ve been trying figure out why lambda expressions don’t feel intuitive to me yet.
I suspect part of it may be because when I skim code, I sometimes internally translate it to my native language for my own clarity.
For example:

endDate.Value = someNullableDate ?? (object)DBNull.Value;
// I could read as:
set endDate to someNullableDate or, if null, to (object)dbNull

An example from another language:

for(int count = 0; count >= 42; count++) {
    cout << "Count is " << count << endl;
}
// May read as:
from an integer "count" as zero to 42 inclusive, display "Count is " and then the integer.

So how would one read the lambda expression in:

var myList = new List<String>(/* various string values */);
var foo = myList.Select(s => s.Trim()).ToList(); //?

Answer 1

Given that LINQ generally only works with IEnumerable objects, you could read s => as ‘for each s in the IEnumerable’.

Update:
Revisiting this answer over 5 years on, I am deeply unsatisfied with it. Personally, nowadays I find myself considering it as “maps to” or I’ve seen “such that” which is also pertinent depending on the circumstance.