LINQ Select Distinct with Anonymous Types

Question

So I have a collection of objects. The exact type isn't important. From it I want to extract all the unique pairs of a pair of particular properties, thusly:

myObjectCollection.Select(item=>new
                                {
                                     Alpha = item.propOne,
                                     Bravo = item.propTwo
                                }
                 ).Distinct();

So my question is: Will Distinct in this case use the default object equals (which will be useless to me, since each object is new) or can it be told to do a different equals (in this case, equal values of Alpha and Bravo => equal instances)? Is there any way to achieve that result, if this doesn't do it?

Answer 1

Have a read through K. Scott Allen's excellent post here:

And Equality for All ... Anonymous Types

The short answer (and I quote):

Turns out the C# compiler overrides Equals and GetHashCode for anonymous types. The implementation of the two overridden methods uses all the public properties on the type to compute an object's hash code and test for equality. If two objects of the same anonymous type have all the same values for their properties – the objects are equal.

So it's totally safe to use the Distinct() method on a query that returns anonymous types.

Answer 2

public class DelegateComparer<T> : IEqualityComparer<T>
{
    private Func<T, T, bool> _equals;
    private Func<T, int> _hashCode;
    public DelegateComparer(Func<T, T, bool> equals, Func<T, int> hashCode)
    {
        _equals= equals;
        _hashCode = hashCode;
    }
    public bool Equals(T x, T y)
    {
        return _equals(x, y);
    }

    public int GetHashCode(T obj)
    {
        if(_hashCode!=null)
            return _hashCode(obj);
        return obj.GetHashCode();
    }       
}

public static class Extensions
{
    public static IEnumerable<T> Distinct<T>(this IEnumerable<T> items, 
        Func<T, T, bool> equals, Func<T,int> hashCode)
    {
        return items.Distinct(new DelegateComparer<T>(equals, hashCode));    
    }
    public static IEnumerable<T> Distinct<T>(this IEnumerable<T> items,
        Func<T, T, bool> equals)
    {
        return items.Distinct(new DelegateComparer<T>(equals,null));
    }
}

var uniqueItems=students.Select(s=> new {FirstName=s.FirstName, LastName=s.LastName})
            .Distinct((a,b) => a.FirstName==b.FirstName, c => c.FirstName.GetHashCode()).ToList();

Sorry for the messed up formatting earlier

Answer 3

Interesting that it works in C# but not in VB

Returns the 26 letters:

var MyBet = "aAbBcCdDeEfFgGhHiIjJkKlLmMnNoOpPqQrRsStTuUvVwWxXyYzZ";
MyBet.ToCharArray()
.Select(x => new {lower = x.ToString().ToLower(), upper = x.ToString().ToUpper()})
.Distinct()
.Dump();

Returns 52...

Dim MyBet = "aAbBcCdDeEfFgGhHiIjJkKlLmMnNoOpPqQrRsStTuUvVwWxXyYzZ"
MyBet.ToCharArray() _
.Select(Function(x) New With {.lower = x.ToString.ToLower(), .upper = x.ToString.ToUpper()}) _
.Distinct() _
.Dump()

Answer 4

I ran a little test and found that if the properties are value types, it seems to work ok. If they are not value types, then the type needs provide it's own Equals and GetHashCode implementations for it to work. Strings, I would think, would work.

Answer 5

You can create your own Distinct Extension method which takes lambda expression. Here's an example

Create a class which derives from IEqualityComparer interface

public class DelegateComparer<T> : IEqualityComparer<T>
{
    private Func<T, T, bool> _equals;
    private Func<T, int> _hashCode;
    public DelegateComparer(Func<T, T, bool> equals, Func<T, int> hashCode)
    {
        _equals= equals;
        _hashCode = hashCode;
    }
    public bool Equals(T x, T y)
    {
        return _equals(x, y);
    }

    public int GetHashCode(T obj)
    {
        if(_hashCode!=null)
            return _hashCode(obj);
        return obj.GetHashCode();
    }       
}

Then create your Distinct Extension method

public static class Extensions
{
    public static IEnumerable<T> Distinct<T>(this IEnumerable<T> items, 
        Func<T, T, bool> equals, Func<T,int> hashCode)
    {
        return items.Distinct(new DelegateComparer<T>(equals, hashCode));    
    }
    public static IEnumerable<T> Distinct<T>(this IEnumerable<T> items,
        Func<T, T, bool> equals)
    {
        return items.Distinct(new DelegateComparer<T>(equals,null));
    }
}

and you can use this method find distinct items

var uniqueItems=students.Select(s=> new {FirstName=s.FirstName, LastName=s.LastName})
            .Distinct((a,b) => a.FirstName==b.FirstName, c => c.FirstName.GetHashCode()).ToList();

Answer 6

In order for it to work in VB.NET, you need to specify the Key keyword before every property in the anonymous type, just like this:

myObjectCollection.Select(Function(item) New With
{
    Key .Alpha = item.propOne,
    Key .Bravo = item.propTwo
}).Distinct()

I was struggling with this, I thought VB.NET didn't support this type of feature, but actually it does.

Answer 7

If Alpha and Bravo both inherit from a common class, you will be able to dictate the equality check in the parent class by implementing IEquatable<T>.

For example:

public class CommonClass : IEquatable<CommonClass>
{
    // needed for Distinct()
    public override int GetHashCode() 
    {
        return base.GetHashCode();
    }

    public bool Equals(CommonClass other)
    {
        if (other == null) return false;
        return [equality test];
    }
}

Answer 8

Hey there i got the same problem and i found an solution. You have to implement the IEquatable interface or simply override the (Equals & GetHashCode) Methods. But this is not the trick, the trick coming in the GetHashCode Method. You should not return the hash code of the object of your class but you should return the hash of the property you want to compare like that.

public override bool Equals(object obj)
    {
        Person p = obj as Person;
        if ( obj == null )
            return false;
        if ( object.ReferenceEquals( p , this ) )
            return true;
        if ( p.Age == this.Age && p.Name == this.Name && p.IsEgyptian == this.IsEgyptian )
            return true;
        return false;
        //return base.Equals( obj );
    }
    public override int GetHashCode()
    {
        return Name.GetHashCode();
    }

As you see i got an class called person got 3 properties (Name,Age,IsEgyptian"Because I am") In the GetHashCode i returned the hash of the Name property not the Person object.

Try it and it will work ISA. Thank you, Modather Sadik