Convert List<T> to ObservableCollection<T> in WP7

ObservableCollection has several constructors which have input parameter of List<T> or IEnumerable<T>:
List<T> list = new List<T>();
ObservableCollection<T> collection = new ObservableCollection<T>(list);


Apparently, your project is targeting Windows Phone 7.0. Unfortunately the constructors that accept IEnumerable<T> or List<T> are not available in WP 7.0, only the parameterless constructor. The other constructors are available in Silverlight 4 and above and WP 7.1 and above, just not in WP 7.0.

I guess your only option is to take your list and add the items into a new instance of an ObservableCollection individually as there are no readily available methods to add them in bulk. Though that's not to stop you from putting this into an extension or static method yourself.

var list = new List<SomeType> { /* ... */ };
var oc = new ObservableCollection<SomeType>();
foreach (var item in list)
    oc.Add(item);

But don't do this if you don't have to, if you're targeting framework that provides the overloads, then use them.


To convert List<T> list to observable collection you may use following code:

var oc = new ObservableCollection<T>();
list.ForEach(x => oc.Add(x));