How to check if all list items have the same value and return it, or return an “otherValue” if they don’t?
var val = yyy.First().Value;
return yyy.All(x=>x.Value == val) ? val : otherValue;
Cleanest way I can think of. You can make it a one-liner by inlining val, but First() would be evaluated n times, doubling execution time.
To incorporate the "empty set" behavior specified in the comments, you simply add one more line before the two above:
if(yyy == null || !yyy.Any()) return otherValue;
Good quick test for all equal:
collection.Distinct().Count() == 1
Though you certainly can build such a device out of existing sequence operators, I would in this case be inclined to write this one up as a custom sequence operator. Something like:
// Returns "other" if the list is empty.
// Returns "other" if the list is non-empty and there are two different elements.
// Returns the element of the list if it is non-empty and all elements are the same.
public static int Unanimous(this IEnumerable<int> sequence, int other)
{
int? first = null;
foreach(var item in sequence)
{
if (first == null)
first = item;
else if (first.Value != item)
return other;
}
return first ?? other;
}
That's pretty clear, short, covers all the cases, and does not unnecessarily create extra iterations of the sequence.
Making this into a generic method that works on IEnumerable<T>
is left as an exercise. :-)