What's the most elegant way of using a partial view to render a comma delimited set of items?

Question

I need to render a list of Person objects, say, in a comma delimited format using a Partial View in ASP.NET MVC. My problem is that when rendered using the following code:

<% foreach (var person in Model) { %>
    <%= Html.ActionLink<PersonController>(c => c.Edit(person.PersonID), Html.Encode(person.Name)) %>,&nbsp;
<% } %>

I get a trailing comma after the last item. What's the most elegant/least stupid way to have this list of persons rendered without the last comma?

My two options so far, in no order, would be:

1. Use JavaScript to remove the trailing comma on the client side
2. Manually create the list using code, instead of markup, in the partial view

Neither of these options appeal to me - any ideas?

Thanks!

Answer 1

<% bool first = true;
   foreach (var person in Model) { 
     if (first) first = false; else Response.Write(","); %>
     <%= Html.ActionLink<PersonController>(c => c.Edit(person.PersonID), Html.Encode(person.Name)) %>
<% } %>

Answer 2

How about:

<%=String.Join(
    ",",
    Model.Select(
        person=>
            Html
            .ActionLink<PersonController>(
                c => c.Edit(person.PersonID), 
                Html.Encode(person.Name)
            )
    )
    .ToArray()
)%>

(untested)

Answer 3

I think, instead of a foreach, you're going to have to iterate through the persons collection using a conventional for loop. That way, you can detect the last iteration through the loop and avoid the last comma.

<% { int count=Model.Persons.Count();
     for (int i=0; i< count; i++) { %>
     <%= Html.ActionLink<PersonController>(c => c.Edit(Persons[i].PersonID), Html.Encode(Persons[i].Name)) %>
     <% if (i < count) { Response.Write(","); } 
   } %>

Answer 4

Uses LINQ Aggregate to concatenate comma-delimited links without appending a trailing comma.

<%= Model.Select(person => Html.ActionLink<PersonController>(c => c.Edit(person.PersonID), Html.Encode(person.Name))
         .Aggregate((links, link) => links + ", " + link) %>