Question

This is what I have. It will return the first cell with a non-null/empty text value – from any row besides the first. If those conditions aren’t met, it will return an empty set. Is there a more compact way of doing this that doesn’t require the second set of where/select clauses?

(Oh, and this is using a WatiN Table element…)

this.Lessors = lessorTable.OwnTableRows
            .Where(row => row.Index > 0)
            .Select(row => row.TableCells
                .FirstOrDefault(cell => 
                    !string.IsNullOrEmpty(cell.Text) && cell.Text.Trim() != string.Empty))
            .Where(cell => cell != null)
            .Select(cell => cell.Text)
            .ToList();

Answer 1

Introducing new range variable and usage of String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace method can make your query more compact:

Lessors = from row in lessorTable.OwnTableRows
          let cell = row.TableCells
                        .FirstOrDefault(c => !String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(c.Text))
          where row.Index > 0 && cell != null
          select cell.Text;