C# equivalent to Java 8 "method reference"

Question

I recently had the opportunity to tweak some Java code and was able to take advantage of some new Java 8 features. In one particular case I needed to get a List of (String) .Name properties from a List of objects. A simplified example of what I did was:

// sample data: <Thing> objects have a single String property called "Name"  List<Thing> thingList =     new ArrayList<>(Arrays.asList(new Thing("Thing1"), new Thing("Thing2")));  // first pass List<String> nameList = new ArrayList<>(); thingList.forEach(x -> nameList.add(x.getName()));  // refinement 1: use stream, map, and collect List<String> nameList1 =     thingList.stream().map(x -> x.getName()).collect(Collectors.toList());  // refinement 2: use "Thing::getName" method reference List<String> nameList2 =     thingList.stream().map(Thing::getName).collect(Collectors.toList()); 

I was curious to see how those approaches would translate to C#, and I got

// sample data: <Thing> objects have a single String property called "Name" var thingList = new List<Thing> { new Thing("Thing1"), new Thing("Thing2") };  // first pass var nameList = new List<String>(); thingList.ForEach(x => nameList.Add(x.Name));  // refinement 1: use Select and ToList List<String> nameList1 = thingList.Select(x => x.Name).ToList(); 

What I haven't found (yet?) is a C# equivalent of "refinement 2" to replace the Lambda expression with something (a little bit) more concise. Is there a C# equivalent to the Java 8 "method reference" in this case, given that I'm trying to get a property of each object (which in Java is done using a getProperty method)?

Answer 1

You would have to declare a method outside of Thing (or a static Thing method), then you could pass a method-group reference to it:

private string GetName(Thing thing) {     return thing.Name; }  ...  List<String> nameList1 = thingList.Select(GetName).ToList(); 

In C# 6, you can also use an expression-bodied function to save a couple of lines:

private string GetName(Thing thing) => thing.Name; 

Answer 2

c# has a equivalent, this feature is callind Method Group

see more:

What is a method group in C#?

sample:

private static int[] ParseInt(string s) {     var t = ParseString(s);     var i = t.Select(x => int.Parse(x));     return i.ToArray(); } 

with metod group:

private static int[] ParseInt(string s) {     var t = ParseString(s);     var i = t.Select(int.Parse);     return i.ToArray(); }