searching classes in an array

Question

I have an array (Items) which holds lots of instances of a class (Item).

Item has 2 properties, a Group and an ID.

there may be more than Item in the array(Items) that have the same Group and ID properties.

How do I "search"/get the first Item which matches a specified Group and/or ID

Something like: Item.getbygroup([group]) which returns an item

EDIT: And what would let me find the second one? So start searching for a point in the array

Answer 1

Use Array.Find. From the documentation:

Searches for an element that matches the conditions defined by the specified predicate, and returns the first occurrence within the entire Array.

Example:

To search by Item.Group:

Item firstItem = Array.Find(Items, Function(item as Item) item.Group = group);

To search by Item.ID:

Item firstItem = Array.Find(Items, Function(item as Item) item.ID = ID);

Responding to your edit:

EDIT: And what would let me find the second one? So start searching for a point in the array

You could do this:

Dim matches as Item()
Dim secondItem as Item
matches = Array.FindAll(Items, Function(item as Item) item.Group = group)
If matches.Length >= 2 Then
    secondItem = matches(1)
Else
    'handle case where no second item
EndIf

Answer 2

Using LINQ:

where group and id are some variables to compare to

var item = Items.Where(x => x.Group == group || x.ID == id).First();