Enumerable.OfType<TResult>(IEnumerable) Method

Reference

Definition

Namespace:: System.Linq

Assembly:: System.Linq.dll

Assembly:: System.Core.dll

Assembly:: netstandard.dll

Source:: Cast.cs

Source:: Cast.cs

Source:: Cast.cs

Important

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Filters the elements of an IEnumerable based on a specified type.

public:
generic <typename TResult>
[System::Runtime::CompilerServices::Extension]
 static System::Collections::Generic::IEnumerable<TResult> ^ OfType(System::Collections::IEnumerable ^ source);

public static System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<TResult> OfType<TResult> (this System.Collections.IEnumerable source);

static member OfType : System.Collections.IEnumerable -> seq<'Result>

<Extension()>
Public Function OfType(Of TResult) (source As IEnumerable) As IEnumerable(Of TResult)

Type Parameters

TResult

The type to filter the elements of the sequence on.

Parameters

source: IEnumerable

The IEnumerable whose elements to filter.

Returns

IEnumerable<TResult>

An IEnumerable<T> that contains elements from the input sequence of type TResult.

Exceptions

ArgumentNullException

source is null.

Examples

The following code example demonstrates how to use OfType to filter the elements of an IEnumerable.

System.Collections.ArrayList fruits = new()
{
    "Mango",
    "Orange",
    null,
    "Apple",
    3.0,
    "Banana"
};

// Apply OfType() to the ArrayList.
IEnumerable<string> query1 = fruits.OfType<string>();

Console.WriteLine("Elements of type 'string' are:");
foreach (string fruit in query1)
{
    Console.WriteLine(fruit);
}

// The following query shows that the standard query operators such as
// Where() can be applied to the ArrayList type after calling OfType().
IEnumerable<string> query2 =
    fruits.OfType<string>().Where(fruit =>
    fruit.Contains('n', StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase));

Console.WriteLine("\nThe following strings contain 'n':");
foreach (string fruit in query2)
{
    Console.WriteLine(fruit);
}

// This code produces the following output:
//
// Elements of type 'string' are:
// Mango
// Orange
// Apple
// Banana
//
// The following strings contain 'n':
// Mango
// Orange
// Banana

' Create an ArrayList and add items to it.
Dim fruits As New ArrayList() From {
    "Mango",
    "Orange",
    Nothing,
    "Apple",
    3.0,
    "Banana"
}

' Apply OfType(Of String)() to the ArrayList
' to filter out non-string items.
Dim query1 As IEnumerable(Of String) = fruits.OfType(Of String)()

' Print the results.
Dim output As New System.Text.StringBuilder("Elements of type 'string' are:" _
                                        & vbCrLf)
For Each fruit As String In query1
    output.AppendLine(fruit)
Next

' The following query shows that the standard query operators such as
' Where() can be applied to the ArrayList type after calling OfType().
Dim query2 As IEnumerable(Of String) =
fruits.OfType(Of String)().Where(Function(fruit) _
                                     fruit.Contains("n"c, StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase))

output.AppendLine(vbCrLf & "The following strings contain 'n':")
For Each fruit As String In query2
    output.AppendLine(fruit)
Next

' Display the output.
Console.WriteLine(output.ToString())

' This code produces the following output:
'
' Elements of type 'string' are:
' Mango
' Orange
' Apple
' Banana
'
' The following strings contain 'n':
' Mango
' Orange
' Banana

Remarks

This method is implemented by using deferred execution. The immediate return value is an object that stores all the information that is required to perform the action. The query represented by this method is not executed until the object is enumerated either by calling its GetEnumerator method directly or by using foreach in C# or For Each in Visual Basic.

The OfType<TResult>(IEnumerable) method returns only those elements in source that are non-null and compatible with type TResult. To receive an exception if an element cannot be cast to type TResult, use Cast<TResult>(IEnumerable).

This method is one of the few standard query operator methods that can be applied to a collection that has a non-parameterized type, such as an ArrayList. This is because OfType extends the type IEnumerable. OfType cannot only be applied to collections that are based on the parameterized IEnumerable<T> type, but collections that are based on the non-parameterized IEnumerable type also.

By applying OfType to a collection that implements IEnumerable, you gain the ability to query the collection by using the standard query operators. For example, specifying a type argument of Object to OfType would return an object of type IEnumerable<Object> in C# or IEnumerable(Of Object) in Visual Basic, to which the standard query operators can be applied.

Applies to

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