convert comma separated string to list using linq

Question

I have 3 comma separated strings FirstName, MiddleInitial, LastName

I have a class NameDetails:

public class NameDetails
{
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string MiddleInitial { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
}

I have the values for strings as:

FirstName ="John1, John2, John3"
MiddleInitial = "K1, K2, K3"
LastName = "Kenndey1, Kenndey2, Kenndey3"

I need to fill the NameDetails List with the values from the comma separated strings.

Any linq for this? I need this for my asp.net mvc (C#) application.

Solution 1

I don't neccesarily advocate this as a good solution but it does what you asked, which is to 'do it in LINQ'.

It is also probably not the most efficient solution.

string FirstName ="John1, John2, John3";
string MiddleInitial = "K1, K2, K3";
string LastName = "Kenndey1, Kenndey2, Kenndey3";
List<String> fn = new List<String>(FirstName.Split(','));
List<String> mi = new List<String>(MiddleInitial.Split(','));
List<String> ln = new List<String>(LastName.Split(','));

IEnumerable<NameDetails> result = from f in fn
        join i in mi on fn.IndexOf(f) equals mi.IndexOf(i)
        join l in ln on fn.IndexOf(f) equals ln.IndexOf(l)
        select new NameDetails {f, i, l};

I used LINQPad to try this out first (with an anonymous class, not the NameDetails calss).

Solution 2

You can use the Linq to CSV library.

Solution 3

Further to my previous answer you could also try:

// some setup
string firstName ="John1, John2, John3";
string middleInitial = "K1, K2, K3";
string lastName = "Kenndey1, Kenndey2, Kenndey3";
var fn = firstName.Split(',');
var mi = middleInitial.Split(',');
var ln = lastName.Split(',');

// the important bit
var s = fn.Select((f, index) => new NameDetails {f, i = mi[index], l = ln[index]});

It will be fragile to the string arrays having unequal numbers of entries.

Credit due to a previous answer on SO.

Comments

[MichaelT]

You don't need List<string> Split method created array of string and arrays aleady can be accessed by LINQ

[Graham Clark]

Doesn't this show that Linq is probably not the best tool for this job? Seems like it would be far clearer to replace the Linq with a for loop.

[rohancragg]

I agree, a for loop is perfectly adequate. I just fancied using this as an excuse to try out some LINQ.

[rohancragg]

@MichaelT without the List<T> the IndexOf() is not available. I wasn't all that happy with using that anyway but it was the first thing I could think of that would work :-)

[Prasad]

thanks @rohancragg. Your both answers worked for me. But as per your comments, i will use this one.

[Zain Shaikh]

@rohancragg you could use Array.IndexOf() method in order to prevent using List<T>.