Question

Let’s say a program like this:

class MyClass
{
    public int Numbers;
    public char Letters;
}
class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var mc = new MyClass[5];
        for (var i = 0; i < 5; i++)
        {
            mc[i].Numbers = i + 1;
            mc[i].Letters = (char) (i + 65);
        }
    }
}

Now, let’s suppose an ‘X’ method that requires ALL the numbers contained in the object mc, in a separate array, that’s sent as a parameter.

My first idea is a for, a new integers array, and copy one by one onto its respective position. But, what if the MyClass gets different, now it has strings and floats, and I wanna pull out the strings, now the for has to be completely redefined in its inside part to create the needed array for another ‘X’ method.

I know of cases where Linq helps a lot, for example, generics for Sum, Average, Count and another numeric functions, and of course, it’s combination with lambda expressions.

I’m wondering if something similar exists to make the above arrays of MyClass (and anothers of course) in a faster-generic way?

Answer 1

If you are using C# 4.0, then you may use dynamic

class MyClass
{
    public dynamic Numbers;
    public char Letters;
}

EDIT: based on comments

I am not sure if this is what you want:

int[] arr = mc.Select(a => a.Numbers).ToArray<int>();

or without casting

int[] arr = mc.Select(a => a.Numbers).ToArray();