Use LINQ to concatenate multiple rows into single row (CSV property)

Question

I'm looking for the LINQ equivalent to the Sybase's LIST() or MySQL's group_concat()

It'll convert:

User  Hobby
--------------
Bob   Football 
Bob   Golf 
Bob   Tennis 
Sue   Sleeping 
Sue   Drinking

To:

User  Hobby
--------------
Bob   Football, Golf, Tennis 
Sue   Sleeping, Drinking

Answer 1

That's the GroupBy operator. Are you using LINQ to Objects?

Here's an example:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;

public class Test
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var users = new[]
        {
            new { User="Bob", Hobby="Football" },
            new { User="Bob", Hobby="Golf" },
            new { User="Bob", Hobby="Tennis" },
            new { User="Sue", Hobby="Sleeping" },
            new { User="Sue", Hobby="Drinking" },
        };

        var groupedUsers = users.GroupBy(user => user.User);

        foreach (var group in groupedUsers)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("{0}: ", group.Key);
            foreach (var entry in group)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("  {0}", entry.Hobby);
            }
        }
    }
}

That does the grouping - can you manage the rest yourself?

Answer 2

See if this solution helps you:

List<User> users = new List<User>() 
{ 
    new User {Name = "Bob", Hobby = "Football" },
    new User {Name = "Bob", Hobby = "Golf"},
    new User {Name = "Bob", Hobby = "Tennis"},
    new User {Name = "Sue", Hobby = "Sleeping"},
    new User {Name = "Sue", Hobby = "Drinking"}
};

var groupedUsers = from u in users
         group u by u.Name into g
         select new
         {
             Name = g.First<User>().Name,
             Hobby = g.Select(u => u.Hobby)
         };


foreach (var user in groupedUsers)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Name: {0}", user.Name);
    foreach (var hobby in user.Hobby)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Hobby: {0}", hobby);
    }
}

Answer 3

re the _concat aspect of your question, using:

static class EnumerableExtensions 
{  
    public static String AsJoined( this IEnumerable<String> enumerable )
    {
        return AsJoined( enumerable, "," );
    }

    public static String AsJoined( this IEnumerable<String> enumerable, String separator )
    {
        return String.Join( separator, enumerable.ToArray() );
    }
}

The outputting foreach in bruno conde and Jon Skeet's answers can become:

Console.WriteLine( "User:\tHobbies");
foreach ( var group in groupedUsers )
    Console.WriteLine( "{0}:\t{1}", group.Key, group.Select( g => g.Hobby ).AsJoined( ", " ) );

... and you'll get the precise result output format you asked for (yes, I know the others have already solved your problem, but its hard to resist!)

Answer 4

To do it in one Linq Statement. There is no way I'd recommend the code, but it shows that it could be done.

            var groupedUsers = from user in users
                           group user by user.User into userGroup
                           select new
                           {
                               User = userGroup.Key,
                               userHobies =
                                   userGroup.Aggregate((a, b) => 
                                       new { User = a.User, Hobby = (a.Hobby + ", " + b.Hobby) }).Hobby
                           }
                            ;
        foreach (var x in groupedUsers)
        {
            Debug.WriteLine(String.Format("{0} {1}", x.User, x.userHobies));
        }