Shortcut for creating single item list in C#

Simply use this:

List<string> list = new List<string>() { "single value" };

You can even omit the () braces:

List<string> list = new List<string> { "single value" };

Update: of course this also works for more than one entry:

List<string> list = new List<string> { "value1", "value2", ... };

var list = new List<string>(1) { "hello" };

Very similar to what others have posted, except that it makes sure to only allocate space for the single item initially.

Of course, if you know you'll be adding a bunch of stuff later it may not be a good idea, but still worth mentioning once.

Michael's idea of using extension methods leads to something even simpler:

public static List<T> InList<T>(this T item)
{
    return new List<T> { item };
}

So you could do this:

List<string> foo = "Hello".InList();

I'm not sure whether I like it or not, mind you...

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