LINQ Advice - Using ToList().ForEach instead of 'classic' ForEach iteration

Question

I would like to use LINQ's ForEach construct and am not sure how to convert the following.

My current implementation:

var employees = (from e in employeeDepartmentList select e.Employee).ToList();
employeeList = new EmployeeList();
foreach (var emp in employees)
{
   employeeList.Add(emp);
}

I am thinking something like this:

employeeList = new EmployeeList();
var employees = (from e in employeeDepartmentList select e.Employee).ToList().ForEach(emp => employeeList.Add(emp));

Answer 1

ForEach is not a LINQ method, it is a method of List<>. In this simple scenario, why even use that? employeeList.AddRange(employees) would be even simpler. Even further, if employees is already a list, do you need employeeList?

As for more advice on using foreach vs. ForEach in general, see: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ericlippert/archive/2009/05/18/foreach-vs-foreach.aspx

Answer 2

Here is the option we decided to go with. We added a class to house extension methods. By placing this in a common assembly, we can use it throughout the enterprise

   public static class IEnumerableExtensions
   {
      public static void ForEach<T>( this IEnumerable<T> source, Action<T> action )
      {
         foreach ( T item in source )
            action( item );
      }
   }