Question

Several Linq.Enumerable functions take an IEqualityComparer<T>. Is there a convenient wrapper class that adapts a delegate(T,T)=>bool to implement IEqualityComparer<T>? It’s easy enough to write one (if your ignore problems with defining a correct hashcode), but I’d like to know if there is an out-of-the-box solution.

Specifically, I want to do set operations on Dictionarys, using only the Keys to define membership (while retaining the values according to different rules).

Answer 1

Ordinarily, I’d get this resolved by commenting @Sam on the answer (I’ve done some editing on the original post to clean it up a bit without altering the behavior.)

The following is my riff of @Sam’s answer, with a [IMNSHO] critical fix to the default hashing policy:-

class FuncEqualityComparer<T> : IEqualityComparer<T>
{
    readonly Func<T, T, bool> _comparer;
    readonly Func<T, int> _hash;

    public FuncEqualityComparer( Func<T, T, bool> comparer )
        : this( comparer, t => 0 ) // NB Cannot assume anything about how e.g., t.GetHashCode() interacts with the comparer's behavior
    {
    }

    public FuncEqualityComparer( Func<T, T, bool> comparer, Func<T, int> hash )
    {
        _comparer = comparer;
        _hash = hash;
    }

    public bool Equals( T x, T y )
    {
        return _comparer( x, y );
    }

    public int GetHashCode( T obj )
    {
        return _hash( obj );
    }
}