Serializing Object Array Property Values

Question

Take the following program:

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

class Person
{
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
    public int Age { get; set; }
}

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var records = new Person[]
        {
            new Person{ FirstName = "John", LastName = "Doe", Age = 32 },
            new Person{ FirstName = "Jane", LastName = "Doe", Age = 27 },
            new Person{ FirstName = "Joe", LastName = "College", Age = 28 }
        };

        Console.WriteLine(string.Join(", ", records.Select(r => new
        {
            FullName = r.FirstName + " " + r.LastName
        })));
    }
}

Its expected output is:

John Doe, Jane Doe, Joe College

But its actual output is:

{ FullName = John Doe }, { FullName = Jane Doe }, { FullName = Joe College }

Is it possible to resolve this from inside the WriteLine?

This is a simplification of a bigger problem I recently encountered, and I need to resolve this from inside the WriteLine because I am performing this "serialization" inside a query; I cannot execute more than one statement.

Habib · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-25 18:26:52Z

3

Instead of selecting anonymous type use:

records.Select(r =>  r.FirstName + " " + r.LastName)

So your Console.WriteLine could be:

Console.WriteLine(string.Join(", ", records.Select(r => r.FirstName + " " + r.LastName)));

answered Feb 25, 2014 at 18:26

Habib

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2 Comments

wjmolinam Over a year ago

Wow, that was quick and simple. Thank you. I apologize for asking such a simple question!

Habib Over a year ago

@JosuéMolina, you are welcome, and don't worry about the question being simple, you got so many alternatives now :)

Tilak · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-25 18:27:59Z

2

Try this,

Console.WriteLine(string.Join(", ", records.Select(r => String.Format("{0} {1}", r.FirstName, r.LastName) ));

answered Feb 25, 2014 at 18:27

Tilak

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1 Comment

Magus Over a year ago

string.Format is considerably less efficient than a simple concatenation due to the need to do a replace. It will definitely work, but should be avoided in many cases.

user2286552 · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-25 18:30:02Z

1

You are recreating a dynamic object. I think you meant something like this:

    Console.WriteLine(string.Join(", ", records.Select(r => r.FirstName + " " + r.LastName)));

answered Feb 25, 2014 at 18:30

user2286552

Comments

Wasif Hossain · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-25 18:31:51Z

1

Just use inline lambda expression as below:

Console.WriteLine(string.Join(", ", records.Select(r => r.FirstName + " " + r.LastName));

answered Feb 25, 2014 at 18:31

Wasif Hossain

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Comments

Chaitanya · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-25 18:34:23Z

1

I would suggest to have a ToString() method. This makes the approach more clean.

public class Person {
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
    public int Age { get; set; }
    public override string ToString() {
        return string.Format("{0} {1}", FirstName, LastName);
    }
}

and then

Console.WriteLine(string.Join(", ", records.Select(r => r.ToString())));

answered Feb 25, 2014 at 18:34

Chaitanya

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