[Michael26]

I have populated my List<int> and it has 30 elements, but i'm having trouble in displaying first 7 elements of the list, can someone help me?

[modi123_1]

Really? You index it like an array.

            List<Int32> fop = new List<int>();
            fop.Add(1);
            fop.Add(2);

            Console.WriteLine(fop[0]);
            Console.WriteLine(fop[1]);

[Michael26]

Yeah, i'm sorry to ask this stupid question, but my brain just froze and couldn't remember the answer.
Anyways thanks for the help

[modi123_1]

Ha.. no prob.

[Michael26]

Hope you don't mind this kinda questions

[ThrowsException]

use linq and say

list.Take(7).ForEach(item => Console.WriteLine(item))

This post has been edited by ThrowsException: 26 September 2012 - 08:54 AM

[CasiOo]

linq? What is wrong with a normal for-loop

[Julyuary]

Well I don't know about you, but that linq looks a lot shorter to me.

[h4nnib4l]

Based on the level I'm assuming the OP is at (and I'm basing that assumption on the nature of the question), giving examples in for-loop format is probably more recognizable (and therefore more relevant to the OP) than linq. Shorter != more conducive to learning.

[CasiOo]

Julyuary, on 26 September 2012 - 05:08 PM, said:

Well I don't know about you, but that linq looks a lot shorter to me.

Because it is shorter........

Doesn't Take make a new List and iterate through the first 7 items of the original list to put them in then new one? And then you iterate over the items again to print them out

[ThrowsException]

CasiOo, on 26 September 2012 - 02:39 PM, said:

Doesn't Take make a new List and...put them in then new one?

I believe this would only happen if you were to say

list.Take(7).ToList()

If you don't add the ToList you never actually materialize the data until you hit the ForEach() and start actually using the data.

Someone please correct me if I'm mistaken about this.

[Curtis Rutland]

Ok, there's a lot of misinformation here.

First of all, the LINQ in question won't even compile. ForEach isn't defined in the LINQ libraries, and it isn't an extension method to IEnumerable<T> like the rest of the LINQ methods are.

.ForEach is an instance method defined on the List<T> class itself. It only works on Lists.

Since .Take returns an IEnumerable, this won't work. If one were to call .ToList on the result of .Take, then it would work, but that would be inefficient, because .ToList creates a new list from the IEnumerable it is called on.

Quote

Doesn't Take make a new List and iterate through the first 7 items of the original list to put them in then new one? And then you iterate over the items again to print them out

No, Take does not make a new list. IEnumerables are lazily evaluated. Basically, each extension method adds to the instructions that can create the sequence, but are not actually evaluated until necessary. So, assuming that the ForEach would actually work on this (which we've already established it won't), .Take wouldn't create a new list, it would create an IEnumerable that knows how to get the data it needed. Then, in the ForEach, as each value was needed, it would be enumerated and used.

LINQ can be quite efficient, if you understand how it works. For something as simple as looping through a few values, it really doesn't matter how you do it. Simple is usually better than clever though.

[h4nnib4l]

Which is why I still think that this is the best thing to do in this case:

for (var i = 0; i < 7; i++)
{
    Console.WriteLine(myList[i]);
}

[Curtis Rutland]

There really isn't a "best", since the topic in question is so simple. I mean, it's just a little list, it really doesn't matter how you go about it. For loop, foreach loop, LINQ query, it's all going to get ironed out by the JIT into something sub-millisecond anyway.

[ThrowsException]

Sorry. I don't know why I had it in my head that ForEach was a linq extension. Absolutely right that you would have to call ToList() before my linq query would work.