Can I get any terser with lambdas?

Question

I'm writing a lot of code with lambdas these days.

return _schema.GetAll<Node>()
           .ToList()
           .FindAll(node => node.Type == NodeType.Unmanaged)
           .Cast<Shape>()
           .ToList();

Note: GetAll() returns an IList.

Can i get any terser?

Answer 1

This should work.

return _schema.GetAll<Node>()
    .Where(node => node.Type == NodeType.Unmanaged)
    .Cast<Shape>()
    .ToList()

If your method had a return type of IEnumerable<Shape> you wouldn't need to call ToList().

You could also write it like this (with IEnumerable<Shape> return type):

return from node in _schema.GetAll<Node>()
       where node.Type == NodeType.Unmanaged
       select node as Shape;

Answer 2

1. You could replace the ToList followed by a FindAll with a Where.
2. A popular standard with lambda parameters in simple statements is a single character. 'node' could be renamed to just 'n'.
3. Your method could return an IEnumerable instead of a IList. The method caller could then call ToList if required.

After:

return _schema.GetAll<Node>().Where(n => n.Type == NodeType.Unmanaged).Cast<Shape>();