Question

Would it be possible to wrap repetitive code like this:

IList<Bla1> Bla1s = (from a in Containers
       where a.Right.GetType().Name.Equals("Bla1")
select
(
  (Bla1) a.Right
)).Distinct().ToList<Bla1>();

into a generic construct (method?). There are many Blas (Bla1, Bla2 …). I guess Bla would represent T but I have not much experience with generics for such situations. Thanks.

Answer 1

If you want to test for the type and not just type name, then you can do:

IList<T> items = Containers.Select(c => c.Right).OfType<T>().Distinct().ToList();

Thus, your generic method could look like this:

IList<T> GenericMethod<T>()
{
    return Containers.Select(c => c.Right).OfType<T>().Distinct().ToList();
}

---

As hvd mentioned in the comments, the code above would also return any Right element that is of a type derived from T. If your intention is to filter for type T only, use this instead:

IList<T> GenericMethod<T>(IEnumerable<Container> containers)
{
    return containers.Select(c => c.Right)
        .Where(x => x.GetType() == typeof(T)).Cast<T>()
        .Distinct().ToList();
}