C# LINQ Introduction

Filter one element

In many cases you want to select the first or last element of a collection that satisfies a condition.

While the methods presented before like Where(), Take() and Skip() return a new collection of elements, there are also LINQ methods that only return a single element:

• First(predicate) returns the first element in the collection that matches the predicate.
• Last(predicate) returns the last element in the collection that matches the pradicate.
• Single(predicate) returns the only element in the collection that matches the predicate. If more than one element matches, the methods throws an exception.

Note: As the methods return a single element you won`t be able to call any other LINQ methods after that. There is nothing to filter, sort, or porject after reducing a collection to a single element.

The following examples call First() but Last() and Single() work the same way.

Here is an example. Return the first adult in the collection.

As you can see, the method takes a collection IEnumerable<Person> as input but returns a single object of type Person.

What if no element matches the predicate

The LINQ methods First(), Last(), and Single() throw an exception, if no element in the collection matches the predicate.

var numbers = new [] { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };

var firstTwoDigitNumber = numbers.First(x => x >= 10);     // throws an Exception. There is no number >= 10

Throwing an exception is sometimes not intended behaviour. Instead, you want to return a default value if no element matches the predicate. For these use cases LINQ offers:

• FirstOrDefault(predicate)
• LastOrDefault(predicate)
• SingleOrDefault(predicate)

The default value is defined by the type of the element:

• 0 for integral types (like int, long, ...)
• false for bool
• null for objects and string

var numbers = new [] { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };

var firstTwoDigitNumber = numbers.FirstOrDefault(x => x >= 10);     // 0 (the default value of type int)

What if I want to select the first or last element of a collection without any condition

You can also use First() and Last() without a predicate. Calling the mehtods without a predicate simply returns the first or last element of the collection.

var numbers = new [] { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };

var firstNumber = numbers.First();  // 1
var lastNumber = numbers.Last();    // 5