How do you convert a DataTable into a generic list?

Question

Currently, I'm using:

DataTable dt = CreateDataTableInSomeWay();

List<DataRow> list = new List<DataRow>(); 
foreach (DataRow dr in dt.Rows)
{
    list.Add(dr);
}

Is there a better/magic way?

Answer 1

You could use

List<DataRow> list = new List<DataRow>(dt.select());

dt.select() will return all rows in your table, as an array of datarows, and the List constructor accepts that array of objects as an argument to initially fill your list with.

Answer 2

With C# 3.0 and System.Data.DataSetExtensions.dll,

List<DataRow> rows = table.Rows.Cast<DataRow>().ToList();

Answer 3

If you're using .NET 3.5, you can use DataTableExtensions.AsEnumerable (an extension method) and then if you really need a List<DataRow> instead of just IEnumerable<DataRow> you can call Enumerable.ToList:

IEnumerable<DataRow> sequence = dt.AsEnumerable();

or

List<DataRow> list = dt.AsEnumerable().ToList();

Answer 4

A more 'magic' way, and doesn't need .NET 3.5.

If, for example, DBDatatable was returning a single column of GUIDs (uniqueidentifier in SQL) then you could use:

        Dim gList As New List(Of Guid)
        gList.AddRange(DirectCast(DBDataTable.Select(), IEnumerable(Of Guid)))

Answer 5

DataTable.Select() doesnt give the Rows in the order they were present in the datatable.

If order is important I feel iterating over the datarow collection and forming a List is the right way to go or you could also use overload of DataTable.Select(string filterexpression, string sort). but this overload may not handle all the ordering(like order by case ...) that SQL provides.

Answer 6

Again, using 3.5 you may do it like:

dt.Select().ToList()

BRGDS