C#: Get Single Item from a List<Custom_Class> If an item exist with one Property value="somevalue" in the list

Question

I have a list of my custom class(which has properties like Name,Age,Address).How can i check whether i have an item with the "Name" value as "shyju" exist in the list and return it if it exist.Name will be unique.No two items have the same name.

the solution now i am thinking of is to go for a for each loop and loop thru each item and check the Name of each item with "shyju" and return it.

Is there any other way to do it ?

Answer 1

The following will return the item with the provided name if there is only one instance in the list (it will throw if there is more than one element).

var item = list.SingleOrDefault(x => x.Name=="shyju");
if ( item != null ) { 
  ...
}

It does do a bit of extra work to guarantee there is only one item in the list with this name. If you already have established that then you can speed it up a bit by using FirstOrDefault instead

var item = list.FirstOrDefault(x => x.Name=="shyju");
if ( item != null ) { 
  ...
}

Answer 2

You can use HashSet<T> instead of List<T>.
And implement Equals and GetHashCode in your custom class.

Answer 3

Contact contact = contacts.FirstOrDefault(o => o.Name == "shyju");

Answer 4

I have a list of my custom class(which has properties like Name,Age,Address).How can i check whether i have an item with the "Name" value as "shyju" exist in the list and return it if it exist.Name will be unique.No two items have the same name.

If the list is going to be unique, how about implmenting, not as a list but as a dictionary?

Dictionary<string, MyCustomClass> myCustomDictionary;
// code to populate the dictionary goes here...

Then you would only need to do this:

var person = myCustomDictionary["shyju"];