Question

Observable.TakeWhile allows you to run a sequence as long as a condition is true (using a delegate so we can perform computations on the actual sequence objects), but it’s checking this condition BEFORE each element. How can I perform the same check but AFTER each element?

The following code demonstrates the problem

    void RunIt()
    {
        List<SomeCommand> listOfCommands = new List<SomeCommand>();
        listOfCommands.Add(new SomeCommand { CurrentIndex = 1, TotalCount = 3 });
        listOfCommands.Add(new SomeCommand { CurrentIndex = 2, TotalCount = 3 });
        listOfCommands.Add(new SomeCommand { CurrentIndex = 3, TotalCount = 3 });

        var obs = listOfCommands.ToObservable().TakeWhile(c => c.CurrentIndex != c.TotalCount);

        obs.Subscribe(x =>
        {
            Debug.WriteLine("{0} of {1}", x.CurrentIndex, x.TotalCount);
        });
    }

    class SomeCommand
    {
        public int CurrentIndex;
        public int TotalCount;
    }

This outputs

1 of 3
2 of 3

I can’t get the third element

Looking at this example, you may think all I have to do is change my condition like so –

var obs = listOfCommands.ToObservable().TakeWhile(c => c.CurrentIndex <= c.TotalCount);

But then the observable will never complete (because in my real world code, the stream doesn’t end after those three commands)

Answer 1

Final edit:

I based my solution off of Sergey’s TakeWhileInclusive implementation in this thread –
How to complete a Rx Observable depending on a condition in a event

public static IObservable<TSource> TakeUntil<TSource>(
        this IObservable<TSource> source, Func<TSource, bool> predicate)
{
    return Observable
        .Create<TSource>(o => source.Subscribe(x =>
        {
            o.OnNext(x);
            if (predicate(x))
                o.OnCompleted();
        },
        o.OnError,
        o.OnCompleted
    ));
}