In C#, how can I force iteration over IEnumerable within nested foreach loops?

Question

I have two IEnumerables:

IEnumerable<string> first = ...
IEnumerable<string> second = ...

I want to create a second IEnumerable<string> that is the concatenation of each element of each IEnumerable.

For example:

IEnumerable<string> first = new [] {"a", "b"};
IEnumerable<string> second = new [] {"c", "d"};

foreach (string one in first)
{
   foreach (string two in second)
   {
      yield return string.Format("{0} {1}", one, two);
   }
}

This would produce:

"a c"; "a d"; "b c"; "b d";

The problem is, sometimes one of the two IEnumerables is empty:

IEnumerable<string> first = new string[0];
IEnumerable<string> second = new [] {"c", "d"};

In this case, the nested foreach construct never reaches the yield return statement. When either IEnumerable is empty, I would like the result to just be the list of the non-empty IEnumerable.

How can I produce the combinations I am looking for?

EDIT: In reality, I have three different IEnumerables I am trying to combine, so adding if conditions for every possible permutation of empty IEnumerable seems bad. If that's the only way, then I guess I'll have to do it that way.

Answer 1

You can simply check that first enumerable is not empty:

IEnumerable<string> first = new [] {"a", "b"};
IEnumerable<string> second = new [] {"c", "d"};

var firstList = first.ToList();

if (!firstList.Any()) {
    return second;
}

foreach (string one in firstList)
{
   foreach (string two in second)
   {
      yield return string.Format("{0} {1}", one, two);
   }
}

To eliminate double IEnumerable evaluation in positive cases just convert first enumerable to list

Answer 2

Your current approach should work until any of the collections is empty. If this is the case you need some check in front:

if(!first.Any())
    foreach(var e in second) yield return e;
else if(!second.Any())
    foreach(var e in first) yield return e;

foreach (string one in first)
{
   foreach (string two in second)
   {
      yield return string.Format("{0} {1}", one, two);
   }
}

However you should consider making an immediate execution using ToList in front to avoid multiple iterations of the same collection.

Answer 3

Assuming you're output for case :

IEnumerable<string> first = new string[0];
IEnumerable<string> second = new [] {"c", "d"};

would be :

c
d

This would work :

var query = from x in first.Any() ? first : new [] { "" }
            from y in second.Any() ? second : new[] { "" }
            select x + y;

Less code , easier to maintain and debug !

Edit : If you have any other IEnumerable is just 1 extra line per IEnumerable ( includes the check )

var query = from x in first.Any() ? first : new [] { "" }
            from y in second.Any() ? second : new[] { "" }
            from z in third.Any() ? third : new[] { "" }
            select x + y + z;

Edit 2 : you can just add the spaces at the end :

select (x + y + z).Aggregate(string.Empty, (c, i) => c + i + ' ');

Answer 4

Simply use Enumerable.DefaultIfEmpty() to enumerate collection even if there is no items.

IEnumerable<string> first = new string[0]; 
IEnumerable<string> second = new[] { "a", "b" };
IEnumerable<string> third = new[] { "c", null, "d" };

var permutations = 
     from one in first.DefaultIfEmpty()
     from two in second.DefaultIfEmpty()
     from three in third.DefaultIfEmpty()
     select String.Join(" ", NotEmpty(one, two, three));

Note: I have used String.Join to join items which are not null or empty and method to select non-empty items to be joined (you can inline this code if you don't want to have a separate method):

private static IEnumerable<string> NotEmpty(params string[] items)
{
    return items.Where(s => !String.IsNullOrEmpty(s));
}

Output for sample above is

[ "a c", "a", "a d", "b c", "b", "b d" ]

For two collections and foreach loops (though I would prefere LINQ as above):

IEnumerable<string> first = new[] { "a", "b" };
IEnumerable<string> second = new string[0];

foreach(var one in first.DefaultIfEmpty())
{
     foreach(var two in second.DefaultIfEmpty())
        yield return $"{one} {two}".Trim(); // with two items simple Trim() can be used
}

Output:

[ "a", "b" ]

Answer 5

If you have more than a couple lists, you can setup a recursive iterator. You'll want to be mindful of the stack, and I think the string concatenation is less than ideal, and passing lists of lists is rather clunky, but this should get you started.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;

namespace en
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            // three sample lists, for demonstration purposes.
            var a = new List<string>() { "a", "b", "c" };
            var b = new List<string>() { "1", "2", "3" };
            var c = new List<string>() { "i", "ii", "iii" };

            // the function needs everything in one argument, so create a list of the lists.
            var lists = new List<List<string>>() { a, b, c };

            var en = DoStuff(lists).GetEnumerator();

            while (en.MoveNext())
            {
                Console.WriteLine(en.Current);
            }
        }

        // This is the internal function. I only made it private because the "prefix" variable
        // is mostly for internal use, but there might be a use case for exposing that ...
        private static IEnumerable<String> DoStuffRecursive(IEnumerable<String> prefix, IEnumerable<IEnumerable<String>> lists)
        {
            // start with a sanity check
            if (object.ReferenceEquals(null, lists) || lists.Count() == 0)
            {
                yield return String.Empty;
            }

            // Figure out how far along iteration is
            var len = lists.Count();

            // down to one list. This is the exit point of the recursive function.
            if (len == 1)
            {
                // Grab the final list from the parameter and iterate over the values.
                // Create the final string to be returned here.
                var currentList = lists.First();
                foreach (var item in currentList)
                {
                    var result = prefix.ToList();
                    result.Add(item);

                    yield return String.Join(" ", result);
                }
            }
            else
            {
                // Split the parameter. Take the first list from the parameter and 
                // separate it from the remaining lists. Those will be handled 
                // in deeper calls.
                var currentList = lists.First();
                var remainingLists = lists.Skip(1);

                foreach (var item in currentList)
                {
                    var iterationPrefix = prefix.ToList();
                    iterationPrefix.Add(item);

                    // here's where the magic happens. You can't return a recursive function
                    // call, but you can return the results from a recursive function call.
                    // http://stackoverflow.com/a/2055944/1462295
                    foreach (var x in DoStuffRecursive(iterationPrefix, remainingLists))
                    {
                        yield return x;
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        // public function. Only difference from the private function is the prefix is implied.
        public static IEnumerable<String> DoStuff(IEnumerable<IEnumerable<String>> lists)
        {
            return DoStuffRecursive(new List<String>(), lists);
        }
    }
}

console output:

a 1 i
a 1 ii
a 1 iii
a 2 i
a 2 ii
a 2 iii
a 3 i
a 3 ii
a 3 iii
b 1 i
b 1 ii
b 1 iii
b 2 i
b 2 ii
b 2 iii
b 3 i
b 3 ii
b 3 iii
c 1 i
c 1 ii
c 1 iii
c 2 i
c 2 ii
c 2 iii
c 3 i
c 3 ii
c 3 iii