When to use an extension method with lambda over LINQtoObjects to filter a collection? *

Question

I am prototyping some C# 3 collection filters and came across this. I have a collection of products:

public class MyProduct
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public Double Price { get; set; }
    public string Description { get; set; }
}

var MyProducts = new  List<MyProduct>
{            
    new  MyProduct
    {
        Name = "Surfboard",
        Price = 144.99,
        Description = "Most important thing you will ever own."
    },
    new MyProduct
    {
        Name = "Leash",
        Price = 29.28,
        Description = "Keep important things close to you."
    }
    ,
    new MyProduct
    {
        Name = "Sun Screen",
        Price = 15.88,
        Description = "1000 SPF! Who Could ask for more?"
    }
};

Now if I use LINQ to filter it works as expected:

var d = (from mp in MyProducts
             where mp.Price < 50d
             select mp);

And if I use the Where extension method combined with a Lambda the filter works as well:

var f = MyProducts.Where(mp => mp.Price < 50d).ToList();

Question: What is the difference, and why use one over the other?

Answer

LINQ turns into method calls like the code you have.

In other words, there should be no difference.

However, in your two pieces of code you are not calling .ToList in the first, so the first piece of code will produce an enumerable data source, but if you call .ToList on it, the two should be the same.

< br > via < a class="StackLink" href=" http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5194/" >When to use an extension method with lambda over LINQtoObjects to filter a collection?< /a>

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