enumerable group field using Linq? - linq

Question

I've written a Linq sentence like this:
var fs = list
.GroupBy(i =>
new {
X = i.X,
Ps = i.Properties.Where(p => p.Key.Equals("m")) <<<<<<<<<<<
}
)
.Select(g => g.Key });
Am I able to group by IEnumerable.Where(...) fields?

Answer 1

The grouping won't work here.
When grouping, the runtime will try to compare group keys in order to produce proper groups. However, since in the group key you use a property (Ps) which is a distinct IEnumerable<T> for each item in list (the comparison is made on reference equality not on sequence equality) this will result in a different collection for each element; in other words if you'll have two items:
var a = new { X = 1, Properties = new[] { "m" } };
var b = new { X = 1, Properties = new[] { "m" } };
The GroupBy clause will give you two distinct keys as you can see from the image below.
If your intent is to just project the items into the structure of the GroupBy key then you don't need the grouping; the query below should give the same result:
var fs = list.Select(item => new
{
item.X,
Ps = item.Properties.Where(p => p.Key == "m")
});
However, if you do require the results to be distinct, you'll need to create a separate class for your result and implement a separate IEqualityComparer<T> to be used with Distinct clause:
public class Result
{
public int X { get; set; }
public IEnumerable<string> Ps { get; set; }
}
public class ResultComparer : IEqualityComparer<Result>
{
public bool Equals(Result a, Result b)
{
return a.X == b.X && a.Ps.SequenceEqual(b.Ps);
}
// Implement GetHashCode
}
Having the above you can use Distinct on the first query to get distinct results:
var fs = list.Select(item => new Result
{
X = item.X,
Ps = item.Properties.Where( p => p.Key == "m")
}).Distinct(new ResultComparer());