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c#listobservablecollection

Add elements from IList to ObservableCollection


I have an ObservableCollection, and I'd like to set the content of an IList to this one. Now I could just create a new instance of the collection..:

public ObservableCollection<Bar> obs = new ObservableCollection<Bar>(); 
public void Foo(IList<Bar> list)
{
    obs = new ObservableCollection<Bar>(list); 
}

But how can I actually take the content of the IList and add it to my existing ObservableCollection? Do I have to loop over all elements, or is there a better way?

public void Foo(IList<Bar> list)
{
   foreach (var elm in list)
       obs.Add(elm); 
}

Solution

  • But how can I actually take the content of the IList and add it to my existing ObservableCollection? Do I have to loop over all elements, or is there a better way?

    While there may be some "better" way which would involve using third party dependencies, some low level manipulation, etc. Simply looping over the collection is fine and works. I recommend doing that. In short—no, there is, effectively, no "better" way.


    This is the old version of this answer, which is a misuse of LINQ (potentially iterating the collection twice just to save a line or two of code). I wanted to delete the answer entirely, but I can't, since it's the accepted answer.

    You could do

    public void Foo(IList<Bar> list) =>
        list.ToList().ForEach(obs.Add);
    

    or as an extension method,

    public static void AddRange<T>(
        this ObservableCollection<T> collection, IEnumerable<T> items) =>
        items.ToList().ForEach(collection.Add);