Chapter 22. Lambda Expressions and LINQ

In This Chapter

In this chapter we will become acquainted with some of the advanced capabilities of the C# language. To be more specific, we will pay attention on how to make queries to collections, using lambda expressions and LINQ, and how to add functionality to already created classes, using extension methods. We will get to know the anonymous types, describe their usage briefly and discuss lambda expressions and show in practice how most of the built-in lambda functions work. Afterwards, we will pay more attention to the LINQ syntax – we will learn what it is, how it works and what queries we can build with it. In the end, we will get to know the meaning of the keywords in LINQ, and demonstrate their capabilities with lots of examples.

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Extension Methods

In practice, programmers often have to add new functionality to already existing code. If the code is available, we can simply add the required functionality and recompile. When a given assembly (.exe or .dll file) has already been compiled, and the source code is not available, a common way to extend the functionality of the types is trough inheritance. This approach can be quite difficult to apply, due to the fact that we will have to change the instances of the base class with the instances of the derived one to be able to use our new functionality. Unfortunately, that is the least of our problems. If the type we want to inherit is marked with the keyword sealed, inheritance is not possible.

Extension methods solve that very same problem – they present to us the opportunity to add new functionality to already existing type (class or interface), without having to change its original code or use inheritance, i.e. also works fine with types that cannot be inherited. Notice that trough extension methods we can add “implemented methods” even to interfaces.

The extension methods are defined as static in ordinary static classes. The type of their first argument is the class (or the interface) they extend. In front of it, we should place the keyword this. That is what makes them different from other static methods, and indicates the compiler that this is an extension method. The parameter with the keyword this in front of it can be used in the method body to create its functionality. Practically, it is the object that is used by the extension method.

Extension methods can be applied directly to objects of the class/interface they extend. They can also be invoked statically through the static class they are defined in, but it is not a good practice.

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To refer to a specific extension method, we should add “using” and the corresponding namespace, where the static class, describing this method, is defined. Otherwise the compiler has no way of knowing about their existence.

Extension Methods – Examples

Let’s take for example the definition of an extension method that counts the number of words in a given string. Have in mind, that the type string is sealed, so it cannot be inherited.

public static class StringExtensions

{

    public static int WordCount(this string str)

    {

        return str.Split(new char[] { ' ', '.', '?', '!' },

            StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries).Length;

    }

}

The method WordCount(…) extends the class String. This is indicated by the keyword this before the type and the name of the first argument of the method (in our case str). The method itself is static and it is defined in the static class StringExtensions. The usage of the extension method is done the same way as all the other methods of the class String. Do not forget to add the corresponding namespace, where the static class, describing the extension methods, is defined. Example of using an extension method:

static void Main()

{

    string helloString = "Hello, Extension Methods!";

    int wordCount = helloString.WordCount();

    Console.WriteLine(wordCount);

}

The method is invoked on the object helloString, which is of type string. It also takes the object as an argument and works with it (in our case refers to its Split(…) method and returns the number of elements of the array, produced by the Split(…) method).

Extension Methods for Interfaces

Extension methods can not only be used on classes, but on interfaces as well. Our next example takes an instance of a class, that implements the interface list of integers (IList<int>), and increases their value by a certain number. The method IncreaseWith(…) can access only those elements that are included in the interface IList (e.g. the property Count).

public static class IListExtensions

{

    public static void IncreaseWith(

        this IList<int> list,   int amount)

    {

        for (int i = 0; i < list.Count; i++)

        {

            list[i] += amount;

        }

    }

}

The extension methods also give us the opportunity to work on generic types. Let’s take for example a method that loops trough a collection, using foreach, implementing IEnumerable from generic type T. Its purpose is to convert to a meaningful string a sequence of elements (e.g. a list of integers):

public static class IEnumerableExtensions

{

    public static string ToString<T>(

        this IEnumerable<T> enumeration)

    {

        StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();

        result.Append("[");

        foreach (var item in enumeration)

        {

            result.Append(item.ToString());

            result.Append(", ");

        }

        if (result.Length > 1)

            result.Remove(result.Length - 2, 2);

        result.Append("]");

        return result.ToString();

    }

}

Example of how to use the two extension methods declared above:

static void Main()

{

    List<int> numbers = new List<int> { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };

    Console.WriteLine(numbers.ToString<int>());

    numbers.IncreaseWith(5);

    Console.WriteLine(numbers.ToString<int>());

}

The output of the execution of the program will be the following:

[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

[6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Anonymous Types

In object-oriented languages (such as C#), it is common to define small classes that will be used only once. Typical example is the class Point that has only two fields – the coordinates of a point. Creating a simple class with the idea of using it just once is inconvenient and time consuming for the programmer, especially when the standard operations for each class: ToString(), Equals() and GetHashCode() have to be predefined.

In C# there is a built-in way to create single-use types, called anonymous types. Objects of such type are created almost the same way as other objects in C#. The thing with them is that we don’t need to define data type for the variable in advance. The keyword var indicates to the compiler that the type of the variable will be automatically detected by the expression, after the equals sign. We actually don’t have a choice here, since we can’t tell the specific type of the variable, because it is defined as one of an anonymous type. After that, we specify name for the object, followed by the "=" operator and the keyword new. In curly braces we enumerate the names and the values of the properties of the anonymous type.

Anonymous Types – Example

Here is an example of creating an anonymous type that describes a car:

var myCar = new { Color = "Red", Brand = "BMW", Speed = 180 };

During compilation, the compiler will create a class with a unique name (something like <>f__AnonymousType0) and will generate properties for it (with getter and setter). In the example above, the compiler will guess by its own, that the properties Color and Brand are of type string and Speed will be set as int. Right after the initialization, the object of the anonymous type can be used as one of an ordinary type with its three properties:

Console.WriteLine("My car is a {0} {1}.",

    myCar.Color, myCar.Brand);

Console.WriteLine("It runs {0} km/h.", myCar.Speed);

The output of the code above will be as follows:

My car is a Red BMW.

It runs 180 km/h.

More about Anonymous Types

As any other type in .NET, the anonymous ones inherit the class System.
Object. During compilation, the compiler will automatically redefine the methods ToString(), Equals() and GetHashCode() for us.

Console.WriteLine("ToString: {0}", myCar.ToString());

Console.WriteLine("Hash code: {0}",     myCar.GetHashCode().ToString());

Console.WriteLine("Equals? {0}", myCar.Equals(

    new { Color = "Red", Brand = "BMW", Speed = 180 }

));

Console.WriteLine("Type name: {0}", myCar.GetType().ToString());

The output of the code above will be the following:

ToString: { Color = Red, Brand = BMW, Speed = 180 }

Hash code: 1572002086

Equals? True

Type name: <>f__AnonymousType0`3[System.String,System.String,System.Int32]

As we can see from the result, the method ToString() is redefined, so that it can list the properties of the anonymous type in the order of their definition in the initialization of the object (in our case myCar). The method GetHashCode() is wrote in such a way, that it uses all fields and on their basis it calculates a hash function with a small number of collisions. The redefined by the compiler method Equals(…) compares the objects field by field. As we can notice from the example, we have created a new object that has exactly the same properties as myCar, and returns a result stating that the newly created object and the old one have equal values.

Arrays of Anonymous Types

The anonymous types, like ordinary ones, can be used as elements of arrays. We can initialize them with the keyword new, followed by square brackets. The values of the elements of the array are listed the same way, as the values assigned to the anonymous types. The values in the array should be homogeneous, i.e. it is not possible to have different anonymous types in the same array. An example of defining an array of anonymous types with two properties (X and Y):

var arr = new[] {

    new { X = 3, Y = 5 },

    new { X = 1, Y = 2 },

    new { X = 0, Y = 7 }

};

foreach (var item in arr)

{

    Console.WriteLine(item.ToString());

}

The result of the execution of the code above will be the following:

{ X = 3, Y = 5 }

{ X = 1, Y = 2 }

{ X = 0, Y = 7 }

Lambda Expressions

Lambda expressions are anonymous functions that contain expressions or sequence of operators. All lambda expressions use the lambda operator =>, which can be read as “goes to”. The idea of the lambda expressions in C# is borrowed from the functional programming languages (e.g. Haskell, Lisp, Scheme, F# and others). The left side of the lambda operator specifies the input parameters and the right side holds an expression or a code block that works with the entry parameters and conceivably returns some result.

Usually lambda expressions are used as predicates or instead of delegates (a type that references a method instance), which can be applied on collections, processing their elements and/or returning a certain result.

Lambda Expressions – Examples

As an example, let’s take the extension method FindAll(…), which can be used to filter the necessary elements. It works on a certain collection by applying a given predicate on it that checks if an element matches a certain requirement. In order to use it we have to add a reference to the assembly System.Core.dll (if it is not already added) and include the namespace System.Linq, because the extension methods for the collections are there.

For example, if we want to take only the even numbers from a collection of integers, we can use the method FindAll(…) on that collection, passing a lambda method to it that checks if a certain number is even:

List<int> list = new List<int>() { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 };

List<int> evenNumbers = list.FindAll(x => (x % 2) == 0);

foreach (var num in evenNumbers)

{

    Console.Write("{0} ", num);

}

Console.WriteLine();

The result is:

2 4 6

The example above loops through the whole collection of numbers and for each element (named x) a check, if the number is multiple of 2, is made (through the Boolean expression (x % 2) == 0).

Let’s now focus on an example in which trough an extension method and a lambda expression we will create a collection, containing data from a certain class. In the example, from the class Dog (with properties Name and Age), we want to get a list that contains all dogs’ names. We can do that with the extension method Select(…) (defined in the namespace System.Linq) by assigning to it to turn each dog (x) into dog’s name (x.Name) and writing that result in the variable names. With the keyword var, we tell the compiler to define the type of the variable according to the result that we assign on the right side of the equals sign.

class Dog

{

    public string Name { get; set; }

    public int Age { get; set; }

}

 

static void Main()

{

    List<Dog> dogs = new List<Dog>() {

        new Dog { Name = "Rex", Age = 4 },

        new Dog { Name = "Sean", Age = 0 },

        new Dog { Name = "Stacy", Age = 3 }

    };

    var names = dogs.Select(x => x.Name);

    foreach (var name in names)

    {

        Console.WriteLine(name);

    }

}

The result is:

Rex

Sean

Stacy

Using Lambda Expressions with Anonymous Types

We can create collections of anonymous types from a collection with some elements by using lambda expressions. Let’s take the collection dogs, containing elements of type Dog, and create new collection consisting of elements of an anonymous type, having two properties – age and the initial letter of the dog’s name:

var newDogsList = dogs.Select(

    x => new { Age = x.Age, FirstLetter = x.Name[0] });

foreach (var item in newDogsList)

{

    Console.WriteLine(item);

}

The result is:

{ Age = 4, FirstLetter = R }

{ Age = 0, FirstLetter = S }

{ Age = 3, FirstLetter = S }

As it is obvious from the example above, the newly created collection newDogsList has elements of an anonymous type, taking the properties Age and FirstLetter as parameters. The first line of the example can be read as follows: "Create a variable of undefined (at this point) type, name it newDogsList and create a new element of an anonymous type for each element x of the dogs collection with two properties: Age that is equal to the property Age of the element x, and the property FirstLetter that is equal to the first character of the string x.Name".

Sorting with Lambda Expressions

If we want to sort the elements in a certain collection, we can use the extension methods OrderBy(…) and OrderByDescending(…), by defining the way of sorting in a lambda function. An example on our collection dogs:

var sortedDogs = dogs.OrderByDescending(x => x.Age);

foreach (var dog in sortedDogs)

{

    Console.WriteLine(string.Format(

        "Dog {0} is {1} years old.", dog.Name, dog.Age));

}

The result is:

Dog Rex is 4 years old.

Dog Stacy is 3 years old.

Dog Sean is 0 years old.

Statements in Lambda Expressions

Lambda functions can also have a body. So far we have used lambda functions with only one statement. Now we will pay more attention to lambda functions that have a body. Let’s return to the example with the even numbers. Suppose we want to print to the console the values of all numbers, to which our lambda function is applied to and to return the result if they are even or not. We can do it the following way:

List<int> list = new List<int>() { 20, 1, 4, 8, 9, 44 };

// Process each argument with code statements

var evenNumbers = list.FindAll((i) =>

{

    Console.WriteLine("Value of i is: {0}", i);

    return (i % 2) == 0;

});

The result from the above code is:

Value of i is: 20

Value of i is: 1

Value of i is: 4

Value of i is: 8

Value of i is: 9

Value of i is: 44

Lambda Expressions as Delegates

Lambda functions can be written in delegates. Delegates are such a type of variables that contains functions (methods). Some standard delegate types in .NET are: Action, Action<in T>, Action<in T1, in T2>, and so on and Func<out TResult>, Func<in T, out TResult>, Func<in T1, in T2, out TResult> and so on. The types Func and Action are generic and contain the types of the return value, and the types of the parameters of the functions. The variables of such types are references to functions. Below is an example for using and assigning values to these types:

Func<bool> boolFunc = () => true;

Func<int, bool> intFunc = (x) => x < 10;

if (boolFunc() && intFunc(5))

{

    Console.WriteLine("5 < 10");

}

The result is:

5 < 10

In the example above we define two delegates. The first one – boolFunc is a function that has no input parameters and returns a Boolean result. We have given an anonymous lambda function that does nothing and always returns true as a value to that function. The second delegate intFunc takes as an argument an int variable and returns a Boolean value – true when x is less than ten, and false otherwise. At the end, in the if statement, we call these two delegates as we give to the second one value of 5 as an argument, and the result from their invocation is true, as we can see.

LINQ Queries

LINQ (Language-Integrated Query) is a set of extensions of the .NET Framework, that includes language integrated queries and operations on the elements of a certain data source (most often arrays or collections). LINQ is a very powerful tool, similar to most SQL languages by logic and syntax. It actually works with collections in the same way as SQL languages work with table rows in databases. It is part of the syntax of C# and Visual Basic .NET and consists of few special keywords like from, in and select. In order to use LINQ queries in C#, we have to include a reference to System.Core.dll and to include the namespace System.Linq in the beginning of the C# program.

Data Sources with LINQ

To define the data source (collection, array and so on), we have to use the keywords from and in and a variable for the iteration of the collection (the iteration is similar to the one with the foreach operator). For example, a query that starts like this:

from culture

in CultureInfo.GetCultures(CultureTypes.AllCultures)

can be read as follows: "for each element of the collection CultureInfo.
GetCultures(CultureTypes.AllCultures) assign the variable culture and use it to refer to these items further in the query".

Data Filtering with LINQ

The keyword where can be used to set conditions, that should be kept by each item of the collection, in order to continue with the execution of the query. The expression after where is always of a Boolean type. We can say that where works as a filter for the elements. For example, if we want to see only those cultures, whose name begins with the lowercase Latin letter b, we can continue the query from our last example like this:

where culture.Name.StartsWith("b")

As we can notice, after where … in, we use only the name we gave for the iteration of the variables in the collection. The keyword where is compiled up to the invoking of the extension method Where().

where culture.Name.StartsWith("b")

Results of LINQ Queries

To choose the output data for the query, we can use the keyword select. The result is an object of an existing class or an anonymous type. The result can also be a property of the objects, the query runs through or the objects themselves. The select statement and everything following it is placed always at the end of the query. The four keywords: from, in, where and select, are completely enough to create a simple LINQ query. Here is an example:

List<int> numbers = new List<int>() {

    1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

};

var evenNumbers =

    from num in numbers

    where num % 2 == 0

    select num;

foreach (var item in evenNumbers)

{

    Console.Write(item + " ");

}

The result is:

2 4 6 8 10

The example above runs a query over a collection of integers called numbers and filters only the even ones in a new collection. The query can be read as follows: "for each number num from numbers check if it is multiple of 2, and if so, add it to the new collection".

Sorting Data with LINQ

Sorting with LINQ queries is done through the keyword orderby. The conditions, used for sorting the elements, are placed after it. For each condition the order of arrangement can be indicated: ascending (using the keyword ascending) and descending (with the keyword descending), as by default the elements are ordered in ascending order. If we want to sort an array of strings by their length in descending order, for example, we can write the following query:

string[] words = { "cherry", "apple", "blueberry" };

var wordsSortedByLength =

    from word in words

    orderby word.Length descending

    select word;

foreach (var word in wordsSortedByLength)

{

    Console.WriteLine(word);

}

The result is:

blueberry

cherry

apple

If no instruction for the order is given (i.e. the keyword orderby is missing from the query) the items are printed in the way they would be processed, if the foreach operator was used.

Grouping Results with LINQ

To group the results by some criteria the keyword group should be used. The pattern is as follows:

group [variable name] by [grouping condition] into [group name]

The result of grouping is a new collection of a special type that can be used further in the query. After the grouping, however, the query stops working with its initial variable. This means that in the select statement, we can use only the group. An example of grouping:

int[] numbers =

    { 5, 4, 1, 3, 9, 8, 6, 7, 2, 0, 10, 11, 12, 13 };

int divisor = 5;

 

var numberGroups =

    from number in numbers

    group number by number % divisor into group

    select new { Remainder = group.Key, Numbers = group };

 

foreach (var group in numberGroups)

{

    Console.WriteLine(

    "Numbers with a remainder of {0} when divided by {1}:",

        group.Remainder, divisor);

    foreach (var number in group.Numbers)

    {

        Console.WriteLine(number);

    }

}

The result is:

Numbers with a remainder of 0 when divided by 5:

5

0

10

Numbers with a remainder of 4 when divided by 5:

4

9

Numbers with a remainder of 1 when divided by 5:

1

6

11

Numbers with a remainder of 3 when divided by 5:

3

8

13

Numbers with a remainder of 2 when divided by 5:

7

2

12

As we can see from the example above, the numbers printed to the console are grouped by their remainders of the division by 5. In the query, for each number number % divisor is calculated, and for each different result a new group is formed. Further in the query, the select operator works on the list of created groups, and for each group creates an anonymous type with two properties: Remainder and Numbers. To the property Remainder the key of the group is assigned (in our case the remainder of the division by the divisor of the number). And to the property Numbers the collection group is assigned, that contains all the elements in the group. Notice that select is executed only over the list of groups. The variable number cannot be used there. Further in the example of two nested foreach statements, the remainders (the groups) and the numbers that have the remainder (located in the group) are printed.

Joining Data with LINQ

The join statement is a bit more complicated than the other LINQ statements. It joins collections by certain matching criteria and extracts the needed data. Its syntax is as follows:

from [variable name from collection 1] in [collection 1] join [variable name from collection 2] in [collection 2] on [part of the compare condition from collection 1] equals [part of the compare condition from collection 2]

Further in the query (e.g. in the select part), both, the name of the variable from collection 1, and the name of the variable from collection 2, can be used. Example:

public class Product

{

    public string Name { get; set; }

    public int CategoryID { get; set; }

}

 

public class Category

{

    public int ID { get; set; }

    public string Name { get; set; }

}

The code that illustrates how to use LINQ joins:

List<Category> categories = new List<Category>()

{

    new Category() { ID = 1, Name = "Fruit" },

    new Category() { ID = 2, Name = "Food" },

    new Category() { ID = 3, Name = "Shoe" },

    new Category() { ID = 4, Name = "Juice" },

};

List<Product> products = new List<Product>()

{

    new Product() { Name = "Strawberry", CategoryID = 1 },

    new Product() { Name = "Banana", CategoryID = 1 },

    new Product() { Name = "Chicken meat", CategoryID = 2 },

    new Product() { Name = "Apple Juice", CategoryID = 4 },

    new Product() { Name = "Fish", CategoryID = 2 },

    new Product() { Name = "Orange Juice", CategoryID = 4 },

    new Product() { Name = "Sandal", CategoryID = 3 },

};

var productsWithCategories =

    from product in products

    join category in categories

        on product.CategoryID equals category.ID

    select new {      Name = product.Name,

                          Category = category.Name };

foreach (var item in productsWithCategories)

{

    Console.WriteLine(item);

}

The result is:

{ Name = Strawberry, Category = Fruit }

{ Name = Banana, Category = Fruit }

{ Name = Chicken meat, Category = Food }

{ Name = Apple Juice, Category = Juice }

{ Name = Fish, Category = Food }

{ Name = Orange Juice, Category = Juice }

{ Name = Sandal, Category = Shoe }

In the example above, we create two classes and an imaginary relationship between them. To each product some category CategoryID (represented by a number) corresponds, that matches the number ID from the class Category in the collection categories. If we want to use this relation and to create a new anonymous type, where to store the products and their names and category, we can write the above LINQ query. It joins the collection of elements of type Category with the one of type Product by the mentioned criteria (match between ID from Category and CategoryID from Products). In the select part of the query, we use both names category and product to construct an anonymous type with the name of the product and the name of the category.

Nested LINQ Queries

LINQ also supports nested queries. For example our last query can be written by nesting two queries in the following way (the result is exactly the same as the one with join):

var productsWithCategories =

    from product in products

    select new {

        Name = product.Name,

        Category =

            (from category in categories

            where category.ID == product.CategoryID

            select category.Name).First()

    };

Since each query in LINQ returns a collection of items (irrespective of whether the result from it is of 0, 1 or more elements), we need to use the extension method First() over the result of the nested query. The method First() returns the first element (in our case the only one) of the collection it is applied on. In this way we get the name of the category only by its ID number.

LINQ Performance

As a rule using LINQ and extension methods is slower than using direct operations over a collection of elements, so beware of using LINQ when processing large collections or the performance is critical.

Let’s compare the speed of adding 50,000,000 elements to a list through extension methods and directly with a for-loop:

List<int> l1 = new List<int>();

DateTime startTime = DateTime.Now;

l1.AddRange(Enumerable.Range(1, 50000000));

Console.WriteLine("Ext.method:\t{0}", DateTime.Now - startTime);

 

startTime = DateTime.Now;

List<int> l2 = new List<int>();

for (int i = 0; i < 50000000; i++) l2.Add(i);

Console.WriteLine("For-loop:\t{0}", DateTime.Now - startTime);

The result might be as follows (depends on the computer’s CPU speed):

Ext.method:     00:00:01.6430939

For-loop:     00:00:00.9120522

LINQ technology and extension methods work through the concept of expression trees. Each LINQ query is translated by the compiler to an expression tree and is executed when its results are actually accessed (not earlier). For example let’s consider the following code:

List<int> list = new List<int>();

list.AddRange(Enumerable.Range(1, 100000));

 

DateTime start = DateTime.Now;

for (int i = 0; i < 10000; i++)

{

    var elements = list.Where(e => e > 20000);

}

Console.WriteLine("No execution:\t{0}", DateTime.Now - start);

 

start = DateTime.Now;

for (int i = 0; i < 10000; i++)

{

    var element = list.Where(e => e > 20000).First();

}

Console.WriteLine("Execution:\t{0}", DateTime.Now - start);

The result might be as follows (depends on the computer’s CPU speed):

No execution:   00:00:00.0070004

Execution:    00:00:02.7231558

This shows that if we call a .Where(…) filter (or where clause in LINQ) it is not actually executed until its result is actually needed. The elements get filtered on demand, at the time they are really required. In our case this is when we invoke First() method. Moreover, if we get the first element of a sequence, the rest elements are not processes until needed. Thus if we use change the filtering lambda function from “e => e > 20000” to “e => e > 500000”, the filtering becomes times slower because more elements are processed until the first matching the filtering condition is found:

No execution:   00:00:00.0060004

Execution:    00:00:06.3663641

Standard .NET Framework collection classes like List<T>, HashSet<T> and Dictionary<K,V> are optimized to work fast with LINQ. Most operations with LINQ work almost as fast as if we run them directly. Let’s check this example:

HashSet<Guid> set = new HashSet<Guid>();

for (int i = 0; i < 50000; i++)

{

    set.Add(Guid.NewGuid()); // Add random GUID

}

 

Guid keyForSearching = new Guid();

DateTime start = DateTime.Now;

for (int i = 0; i < 50000; i++)

{

    // Use HashSet.Contains(…)

    bool found = set.Contains(keyForSearching);

}

Console.WriteLine("HashSet: {0}", DateTime.Now - start);

 

start = DateTime.Now;

for (int i = 0; i < 50000; i++)

{

    // Use IEnumerable<Guid>.Contains(…) extension method

    bool found = set.Contains<Guid>(keyForSearching);

}

Console.WriteLine("Contains: {0}", DateTime.Now - start);

 

start = DateTime.Now;

for (int i = 0; i < 50000; i++)

{

    // Use IEnumerable<Guid>.Where(…) extension method

    bool found = set.Where(g => g==keyForSearching).Count() > 0;

}

Console.WriteLine("Where: {0}", DateTime.Now - start);

The result is as follows (though it depends on the computer’s CPU speed):

HashSet: 00:00:00.0030002

Contains: 00:00:00.0040003

Where: 00:02:49.9717218

Seems like .NET Framework takes into account the capability to search in constant time O(1) in a HashSet<T>, so searching though the native method Contains(…) and though the extension methods IEnumerable.Contains(…) both run in time O(1). By contrast, the IEnumerable.Where(…) method is dramatically slower and runs in linear time O(n). This is expected, because the Where(…) method checks certain condition for each element in a collection and it is expected to process all elements one by one. By contrast the Contains(…) method just searches for single element which is fast operation.

In case you do not remember about the asymptotic notation O(1) and O(n), please check the chapter “Data Structures and Algorithm Complexity”.

In the above example we use the system structure Guid. This is a global unique identifier often used in computer technologies to identify an object. It may look like the following: 8668f585-faf8-4685-8025-6a8d1d2aba0a. If you want to generate a global unique (world-wide) identifier, you might benefit from the method Guid.NewGuid(), like we do in the code above.

Exercises

1.  Implement an extension method Substring(int index, int length) for the class StringBuilder that returns a new StringBuilder and has the same functionality as the method Substring(…) of the class String.

2.  Implement the following extension methods for the classes, implementing the interface IEnumerable<T>: Sum(), Min(), Max(), Average().

3.  Write a class Student with the following properties: first name, last name and age. Write a method that for a given array of students finds those, whose first name is before their last one in alphabetical order. Use LINQ.

4.  Create a LINQ query that finds the first and the last name of all students, aged between 18 and 24 years including. Use the class Student from the previous exercise.

5.  By using the extension methods OrderBy(…) and ThenBy(…) with lambda expression, sort a list of students by their first and last name in descending order. Rewrite the same functionality using a LINQ query.

6.  Write a program that prints to the console all numbers from a given array (or list), that are multiples of 7 and 3 at the same time. Use the built-in extension methods with lambda expressions and then rewrite the same using a LINQ query.

7.  Write an extension method for the class String that capitalizes all letters, which are the beginning of a word in a sentence in English. For example: "this iS a Sample sentence." should be converted to "This Is A Sample Sentence.".

8.  Create a hash-table to hold a phone book: a set of person names and their phone numbers (e.g. Kate Wilson à +3592981981, +3598862536; Alex & Co. à 1-800-ALEX; Steve Milton à +496023456). Fill enough random data (e.g. 50,000 key-value pairs). Measure how much time it takes to perform searching by key in the hash-table using its native search capabilities, using the extension methods IEnumerable.Contains(…) and IEnumerable.Where(…). Can you explain the difference?

Solutions and Guidelines

1.  Follow the syntax explained in the section “Extension Methods”. You may create a new StringBuilder and to write in it all the characters with indices, starting from index and with length length, from the object that the extension method will work on.

2.  For generic implementation of the Min() and Max() methods for any generic type T you can add a restriction to the passed type T to be comparable, i.e. you should have something like this:

public static T Min<T>(this IEnumerable<T> elements)

    where T : IComparable<T>

{     … }

Since not all data types have predefined operators + and /, it will not be possible to apply the functions Sum() and Average() to all types directly. There are no interfaces ISummable<T> and IDividable<T> in .NET. One way to work around this problem is to convert all input objects to decimal and then to calculate sum / average and return decimal as result. For the conversion you can use the static method Convert.ToDecimal(…).

Another interesting approach is to use the dynamic data type in C# to hold the arguments and results and to execute the operations over them at runtime (due to the dynamic evaluation capabilities in C#):

public static dynamic Min<T>(this IEnumerable<T> elements)

{     … }

This is easier to implement and works better but could have performance issues and some special cases to be handled.

3.  Review the keywords from, where and select from the "LINQ Queries" section in this chapter.

4.  Write a LINQ query to select the described students in an anonymous type that contains only two properties – FirstName and LastName.

5.  For the LINQ query use from, orderby, descending and select. For the implementation with the lambda expressions, you can use the methods OrderByDescending(…) and ThenByDescending(…).

6.  It is enough to check if the numbers are multiples of 21, instead of writing two where conditions.

7.  Use the method ToTitleCase(…) of the property TextInfo in the culture en-US in the following way:

new CultureInfo("en-US", false).TextInfo.ToTitleCase(text);

8.  See the examples at the end of the section “LINQ Performance”. You can use Dictionary<string, List<string>> to hold the phone book. You may explain the difference in the execution speed by trying to explain how searching works internally and by the assumption that searching in a hash-table takes time O(1) and searching in a collection element by element runs in linear time O(n).

Demonstrations (source code)

Download the demo examples for this chapter from the book: Lambda-Expressions-and-LINQ-Demos.zip.

Discussion Forum

Comment the book and the tasks in the : forum of the Software Academy.

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2 responses to “Chapter 22. Lambda Expressions and LINQ”

  1. Fundamentals of Programming with C#: Free Book, Videos, Presentations and Mind Maps | Svetlin Nakov's Blog says:
    January 13, 2014 at 3:51 am

    […] Chapter 22. Lambda Expressions and LINQ […]

  2. Debasmit says:
    February 4, 2019 at 5:40 pm

    This is superb and cleared a lot of concepts.

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