improving readiblity and be slightly less explicit using Linq

Question

All,

I've got the following code, and looking into ways to improve its readibility (and remove the null check) by using Linq.

var activePlan = CurrentPlans.First();
var activeObjectives = activePlan != null ? activePlan.Objectives : null;

The closest I get is the following:

var activeObjectives = CurrentPlans.Take(1).Select(x => x.Objectives);

which gives me a collection of x.Objectives instead of Objectives. Any ideas?

Answer 1

oh got it:

var activeObjectives = CurrentPlans.Take(1).SelectMany(x => x.Objectives)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.linq.enumerable.selectmany.aspx

Answer 2

I'd write if like this:

var activeObjectives = CurrentPlans.Select(x => x.Objectives).FirstOrDefault();

This way, it's easier to work out the intention by the use of methods. Take the first set of objectives, otherwise the default (null assuming Objectives refers to a reference type). Using SelectMany() for this case isn't the best choice IMO.