LINQ - Map string arrays to list of objects

Question

How do I map string arrays to a list of objects? A for loop would do it but wondering if there's a more elegant way to do this? Perhaps with Linq?

String arrays:

string[] names = { "john","jane"};                                 
string[] companies = { "company ABC", "" };
string[] affiliations = { "affiliation 1", "affiliation 2" };

Contact:

public class Contact
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Company { get; set; }
    public string Affiliation { get; set; }
    public string Address { get; set; }
    public string City { get; set; }
    public string State { get; set; }
}

I don't understand your question - what is it you wish to achieve? — The Evil Greebo
– The Evil Greebo, Commented Jul 18, 2011 at 23:11
trying to find a more elegant solution than using a for loop. Perhaps by using linq? — dmuun
– dmuun, Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 1:34

BoltClock · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-18 23:12:00Z

4

Assuming you've ensured all of the arrays (all of them, not just the first three in your question) are exactly the same size and in the right order (so all the values will correspond to the right Contact objects), a for loop will suffice...

var contactList = new List<Contact>();

for (int i = 0; i < names.Length; i++)
{
    contactList.Add(new Contact
    {
        Name = names[i], 
        Company = companies[i], 
        Affiliation = affiliations[i],
        // etc
    });
}

answered Jul 18, 2011 at 23:12

BoltClock

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2 Comments

Zach Over a year ago

You beat me to it. Deleting my answer since I like yours better.

dmuun Over a year ago

yes a for loop would work but is there a more elegant solution? linq?

Merlyn Morgan-Graham · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-18 23:14:17Z

1

If you truly have both those definitions in your code, then you should just skip the string array step entirely. Instead, initialize a list of Contact directly:

var contacts = new List<Contact>()
{
    new Contact()
    {
        Name = "john",
        Company = "company ABC",
        Affiliation = "affiliation 1",
    },
    new Contact()
    {
        // ...
    },
    // ...
};

This is more readable, and is less error prone, in case you have mis-matched list sizes, or don't have some data for one of the entries.

answered Jul 18, 2011 at 23:14

Merlyn Morgan-Graham

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