Is there a .NET queue class that allows for dequeuing multiple items at once?

Question

I believe a pretty common scenario is to have a queue of items that should be processed N at a time.

For instance.. if we have 23 items and should process 10 at a time, it would be like:

Process batch of 10
Process batch of 10
Process batch of 3

I can solve this problem in a variaty of ways. My question is: Does the .NET framework provide any class designed specifically to address this scenario? The Queue class would be perfect but it doesn't allow for dequeuing multiple items at once.

Answer 1

You could create an extension method on Queue<T>:

public static class QueueExtensions
{
    public static IEnumerable<T> DequeueChunk<T>(this Queue<T> queue, int chunkSize) 
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < chunkSize && queue.Count > 0; i++)
        {
            yield return queue.Dequeue();
        }
    }
}

Usage:

var q = new Queue<char>();
q.DequeueChunk(10) // first 10 items
q.DequeueChunk(10) // next 10 items

Example: https://dotnetfiddle.net/OTcIZX