How to create an ObservableCollection using LINQ in Silverlight

Question

In a non-Silverlight world, it is easy to use LINQ to create an ObservableCollection. This is because the ObservableCollection class has constructors that accept any IEnumerable<T> or List<T>. However, the Silverlight version does not! This means that code such as:

var list = (from item in e.Result
            select new ViewModel(item)).ToList();

Items = new System.Collections.ObjectModel.ObservableCollection<ViewModel>(list);

will not work in Silverlight.

Is there another option to make this work besides resorting to a for-each statement?

Answer 1

Well That works if you are using Silverlight 4. try this:

public static class CollectionExtensions
    {
        public static ObservableCollection<T> ToObservableCollection<T>(this IEnumerable<T> coll)
        {
            var c = new ObservableCollection<T>();
            foreach (var e in coll)
                c.Add(e);
            return c;
        }
    }

found in: http://forums.silverlight.net/forums/p/39487/262505.aspx

Answer 2

I dont think so, but you can make it cleaner using this extension method.

 public static ObservableCollection<T> ToObservableCollection<T>(this IEnumerable<T> coll) {
        var c = new ObservableCollection<T>();
        foreach (var e in coll)
            c.Add(e);
        return c;
    }