Question

The xml elements are variable depending on some conditional. I need to initialize an instance with a different element, based on the value of some other element.

var result = (from name in names
   select new MyName
   {
      name.First  = name.Type = Fracais ? name.PreNom : name.First,
      name.Last 
   }

Any ideas?

Answer 1

What you have is almost right. I had to guess the enums and members as you don’t provide the other classes:

   var result = from name in names
                 select new Person()
                   {
                      First = name.Type == PersonType.Fracais ? name.PreNom : name.First,
                      Last = name.Last
                   };

You can have pretty much any expression, including function calls, in a linq query, so testing values and mutating them on the fly is perfectly acceptable.