Creating a List of Lists in C#
C#.NetC# Problem Overview
I seem to be having some trouble wrapping my head around the idea of a Generic List of Generic Lists in C#. I think the problem stems form the use of the <T>
argument, which I have no prior experience playing with. Could someone provide a short example of declaring a class which is a List, that therein contains another List, but where the type of the object contained therein is not immediately known?
I've been reading through the MS documentation on Generics, and I am not immediately sure if I can declare a List<List<T>>
, nor how exactly to pass the <T>
parameter to the inside list.
Edit: Adding information
Would declaring a List<List<T>>
be considered legal here? In case you are wondering, I am building a class that allows me to use a ulong
as the indexer, and (hopefully) steps around the nasty 2GB limit of .Net by maintaining a List of Lists.
public class DynamicList64<T>
{
private List<List<T>> data = new List<List<T>>();
private ulong capacity = 0;
private const int maxnumberOfItemsPerList = Int32.MaxValue;
public DynamicList64()
{
data = new List<List<T>>();
}
C# Solutions
Solution 1 - C#
A quick example:
List<List<string>> myList = new List<List<string>>();
myList.Add(new List<string> { "a", "b" });
myList.Add(new List<string> { "c", "d", "e" });
myList.Add(new List<string> { "qwerty", "asdf", "zxcv" });
myList.Add(new List<string> { "a", "b" });
// To iterate over it.
foreach (List<string> subList in myList)
{
foreach (string item in subList)
{
Console.WriteLine(item);
}
}
Is that what you were looking for? Or are you trying to create a new class
that extends List<T>
that has a member that is a `List
Solution 2 - C#
or this example, just to make it more visible:
public class CustomerListList : List<CustomerList> { }
public class CustomerList : List<Customer> { }
public class Customer
{
public int ID { get; set; }
public string SomethingWithText { get; set; }
}
and you can keep it going. to the infinity and beyond !
Solution 3 - C#
public class ListOfLists<T> : List<List<T>>
{
}
var myList = new ListOfLists<string>();
Solution 4 - C#
A list of lists would essentially represent a tree structure, where each branch would constitute the same type as its parent, and its leaf nodes would represent values.
Implementation
public sealed class TreeList<T> : List<TreeList<T>>
{
public List<T> Values { get; } = new List<T>();
public TreeList<T> this[int index]
{
get
{
while (index > Count - 1)
{
Branch();
}
return base[index];
}
}
public TreeList<T> Branch()
{
TreeList<T> result = new TreeList<T>();
Add(result);
return result;
}
}
Example
internal static class Program
{
public static void Main()
{
// Create the root element...
TreeList<string> treeList = new TreeList<string>();
// You can add branches the old-fashioned way...
treeList.Add(new TreeList<string>());
// Add leaf node values to your first branch...
treeList[0].Values.Add("Hello, World!");
treeList[0].Values.Add("Goodbye, World!");
// You can create new branches from any branch like this...
// Note: You could also chain branch statements; i.e. treeList.Branch().Branch().Branch()
TreeList<string> branch2 = treeList.Branch();
// Add leaf node values to your second branch...
branch2.Values.Add("Alice");
branch2.Values.Add("Bob");
// You can also create branches until you reach the desired branch index...
// The TreeList indexer will loop until the desired index has been created, and then return it.
treeList[7].Values.Add("Alpha");
treeList[7].Values.Add("Bravo");
treeList[7].Values.Add("Charlie");
// How many branches does the root have?
Console.WriteLine($"Treelist branches: {treeList.Count}");
// What's at branch 0's values?
foreach (string value in treeList[0].Values)
{
Console.WriteLine(value);
}
// What's at branch 1's values?
foreach (string value in treeList[1].Values)
{
Console.WriteLine(value);
}
// What's at branch 7's values?
foreach (string value in treeList[7].Values)
{
Console.WriteLine(value);
}
}
}
Now, whether you should implement something like this is another matter. Extending List<T>
isn't recommended: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21692193/why-not-inherit-from-listt
Solution 5 - C#
I have the following code
public class ChildClass
{
public string FieldName { get; set; }
public string Value { get; set; }
public string StatusClass { get; set; }
public string StatusMessage { get; set; }
}
Creating a list of list obj is as follows
List<List<ChildClass>> obj = new List<List<ChildClass>>();
Solution 6 - C#
Look a direct example here:
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
List<List<Label>> txtList;
List<List<int>> num;
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
txtList = new List< List<Label> >() {
new List<Label> { label1, label2, label3 },
new List<Label> { label4, label5, label6 },
new List<Label> { label7, label8, label9 }
};
num = new List<List<int>>() { new List<int>() { 1, 2 }, new List<int>() { 3, 4 } };
}
}
Solution 7 - C#
you should not use Nested List in List.
List<List<T>>
is not legal, even if T were a defined type.