How do you concatenate Lists in C#?

If I have:

List<string> myList1;
List<string> myList2;

myList1 = getMeAList();
// Checked myList1, it contains 4 strings

myList2 = getMeAnotherList();
// Checked myList2, it contains 6 strings

myList1.Concat(myList2);
// Checked mylist1, it contains 4 strings... why?

I ran code similar to this in Visual Studio 2008 and set break points after each execution. After myList1 = getMeAList();, myList1 contains four strings, and I pressed the plus button to make sure they weren't all nulls.

After myList2 = getMeAnotherList();, myList2 contains six strings, and I checked to make sure they weren't null... After myList1.Concat(myList2); myList1 contained only four strings. Why is that?

Concat returns a new sequence without modifying the original list. Try myList1.AddRange(myList2).

Try this:

myList1 = myList1.Concat(myList2).ToList();

Concat returns an IEnumerable<T> that is the two lists put together, it doesn't modify either existing list. Also, since it returns an IEnumerable, if you want to assign it to a variable that is List<T>, you'll have to call ToList() on the IEnumerable<T> that is returned.

targetList = list1.Concat(list2).ToList();

It's working fine I think so. As previously said, Concat returns a new sequence and while converting the result to List, it does the job perfectly.

It also worth noting that Concat works in constant time and in constant memory. For example, the following code

        long boundary = 60000000;
        for (long i = 0; i < boundary; i++)
        {
            list1.Add(i);
            list2.Add(i);
        }
        var listConcat = list1.Concat(list2);
        var list = listConcat.ToList();
        list1.AddRange(list2);

gives the following timing/memory metrics:

After lists filled mem used: 1048730 KB
concat two enumerables: 00:00:00.0023309 mem used: 1048730 KB
convert concat to list: 00:00:03.7430633 mem used: 2097307 KB
list1.AddRange(list2) : 00:00:00.8439870 mem used: 2621595 KB

I know this is old but I came upon this post quickly thinking Concat would be my answer. Union worked great for me. Note, it returns only unique values but knowing that I was getting unique values anyway this solution worked for me.

namespace TestProject
{
    public partial class Form1 :Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            List<string> FirstList = new List<string>();
            FirstList.Add("1234");
            FirstList.Add("4567");

            // In my code, I know I would not have this here but I put it in as a demonstration that it will not be in the secondList twice
            FirstList.Add("Three");  

            List<string> secondList = GetList(FirstList);            
            foreach (string item in secondList)
                Console.WriteLine(item);
        }

        private List<String> GetList(List<string> SortBy)
        {
            List<string> list = new List<string>();
            list.Add("One");
            list.Add("Two");
            list.Add("Three");

            list = list.Union(SortBy).ToList();
            
            return list;
        }
    }
}

The output is:

One
Two
Three
1234
4567

Take a look at my implementation. It's safe from null lists.

 IList<string> all= new List<string>();

 if (letterForm.SecretaryPhone!=null)// first list may be null
     all=all.Concat(letterForm.SecretaryPhone).ToList();

 if (letterForm.EmployeePhone != null)// second list may be null
     all= all.Concat(letterForm.EmployeePhone).ToList(); 

 if (letterForm.DepartmentManagerName != null) // this is not list (its just string variable) so wrap it inside list then concat it 
     all = all.Concat(new []{letterForm.DepartmentManagerPhone}).ToList();