How to return count with list of rows ?

Question

I work on c# I face issue I can't return count of rows with list of rows returned .
so I need to return list of rows and this id done

remaining to return count with it

so How to do it please ?

Employee Model
public class EmpModel
{
    public int EmployeeId { get; set; }
    public string EmployeeName { get; set; }
    public int EmployeeStatus { get; set; }
}

public List<EmpModel> GetAllEmployees()
{
    connection();
    List<EmpModel> EmpList = new List<EmpModel>();

    SqlCommand com = new SqlCommand("GetEmployees", con);
    com.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
    SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(com);
    DataTable dt = new DataTable();

    con.Open();
    da.Fill(dt);
    con.Close();   
    foreach (DataRow dr in dt.Rows)
    {

        EmpList.Add(
            new EmpModel
            {
                EmployeeId = Convert.ToInt32(dr["EmployeeId"]),
                EmployeeName = Convert.ToString(dr["EmployeeName"]),
                EmployeeStatus = Convert.ToInt32(dr["EmployeeStatus"])
            }
            );
    }

Answer 1

You can return both the list and the count as follows which is a proof of concept which deconstructs at the caller end.

public class EmpModel
{
    public int EmployeeId { get; set; }
    public string EmployeeName { get; set; }
    public int EmployeeStatus { get; set; }
}

public class Operations
{
    public static (List<EmpModel> list, int count)  GetAllEmployees()
    {
        connection();
        List<EmpModel> EmpList = new List<EmpModel>();

        SqlCommand com = new SqlCommand("GetEmployees", con);
        com.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
        SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(com);
        DataTable dt = new DataTable();

        con.Open();
        da.Fill(dt);
        con.Close();
        foreach (DataRow dr in dt.Rows)
        {

            EmpList.Add(
                new EmpModel
                {
                    EmployeeId = Convert.ToInt32(dr["EmployeeId"]),
                    EmployeeName = Convert.ToString(dr["EmployeeName"]),
                    EmployeeStatus = Convert.ToInt32(dr["EmployeeStatus"])
                }
            );
        }

        return (EmpList, EmpList.Count);
    }
}

public class CallingClass
{
    public static void Run()
    {
        var (list, count) = Operations.GetAllEmployees();
    }
}	

Answer 2

With a List<T> you don't need the count, the list already has a Count property. Use that one.

var employees = GetAllEmployees();
var count = employees.Count;

Using a custom model

If for a reason (that I cannot imagine 😄) you want to return the count in the output, you can create a model like this:

using System.Collections.Generic;
public class MyModel<T>
{
    public MyModel(List<T> list) { this.List = list; }
    public List<T> List { get; set; }
    public int Count { get { return List.Count; } }
}

And in your method return new MyModel(EmpList);.

Then you can use it like this:

var model = GetAllEmployees();
var employees = model.List;
var count = model.Count;

Using Tuple

Another option could be returning a tuple; so you can modify your method like this:

public (List<Employee>, int) GetAllEmployees()
{
    ... 
    ...
    var count = list.Count;
    return (EmpList, EmpList.Count);
}

Then you can use it like this:

var result = GetAllEmployees();
var employees = result.Item1;
var count = result.Item2;