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Check if a value is in an array (C#)

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How do you check if a number is in an array?

JavaScript Array includes() The includes() method returns true if an array contains a specified value. The includes() method returns false if the value is not found. The includes() method is case sensitive.

How do you check if a value is not in an array C++?

A simple and elegant solution is to use the std::find function to find a value in an array. It returns an iterator to the first occurrence of the matching element, or an iterator to the end of the range if that element is not found.


Add necessary namespace

using System.Linq;

Then you can use linq Contains() method

string[] printer = {"jupiter", "neptune", "pangea", "mercury", "sonic"};
if(printer.Contains("jupiter"))
{
    Process.Start("BLAH BLAH CODE TO ADD PRINTER VIA WINDOWS EXEC"");
}

   string[] array = { "cat", "dot", "perls" };

// Use Array.Exists in different ways.
bool a = Array.Exists(array, element => element == "perls");
bool b = Array.Exists(array, element => element == "python");
bool c = Array.Exists(array, element => element.StartsWith("d"));
bool d = Array.Exists(array, element => element.StartsWith("x"));

// Display bools.
Console.WriteLine(a);
Console.WriteLine(b);
Console.WriteLine(c);
Console.WriteLine(d);
----------------------------output-----------------------------------

1)True 2)False 3)True 4)False


Add using System.Linq; at the top of your file. Then you can do:

if ((new [] {"foo", "bar", "baaz"}).Contains("bar"))
{

}  

    public static bool Contains(Array a, object val)
    {
        return Array.IndexOf(a, val) != -1;
    }

Something like this?

string[] printer = {"jupiter", "neptune", "pangea", "mercury", "sonic"};
PrinterSetup(printer);

// redefine PrinterSetup this way:
public void PrinterSetup(string[] printer)
{
    foreach (p in printer.Where(c => c == "jupiter"))
    {
        Process.Start("BLAH BLAH CODE TO ADD PRINTER VIA WINDOWS EXEC"");
    }
}

Note: The question is about arrays of strings. The mentioned routines are not to be mixed with the .Contains method of single strings.

I would like to add an extending answer referring to different C# versions and because of two reasons:

  • The accepted answer requires Linq which is perfectly idiomatic C# while it does not come without costs, and is not available in C# 2.0 or below. When an array is involved, performance may matter, so there are situations where you want to stay with Array methods.

  • No answer directly attends to the question where it was asked also to put this in a function (As some answers are also mixing strings with arrays of strings, this is not completely unimportant).

Array.Exists() is a C#/.NET 2.0 method and needs no Linq. Searching in arrays is O(n). For even faster access use HashSet or similar collections.

Since .NET 3.5 there also exists a generic method Array<T>.Exists() :

public void PrinterSetup(string[] printer)
{
   if (Array.Exists(printer, x => x == "jupiter"))
   {
      Process.Start("BLAH BLAH CODE TO ADD PRINTER VIA WINDOWS EXEC");
   }
}

You could write an own extension method (C# 3.0 and above) to add the syntactic sugar to get the same/similar ".Contains" as for strings for all arrays without including Linq:

// Using the generic extension method below as requested.
public void PrinterSetup(string[] printer)
{
   if (printer.ArrayContains("jupiter"))
   {
      Process.Start("BLAH BLAH CODE TO ADD PRINTER VIA WINDOWS EXEC");
   }
}

public static bool ArrayContains<T>(this T[] thisArray, T searchElement)
{
   // If you want this to find "null" values, you could change the code here
   return Array.Exists<T>(thisArray, x => x.Equals(searchElement));
}

In this case this ArrayContains() method is used and not the Contains method of Linq.

The elsewhere mentioned .Contains methods refer to List<T>.Contains (since C# 2.0) or ArrayList.Contains (since C# 1.1), but not to arrays itself directly.


You are just missing something in your method:

public void PrinterSetup(string printer)
{
   if (printer == "jupiter") 
   {
      Process.Start("BLAH BLAH CODE TO ADD PRINTER VIA WINDOWS EXEC"");
   }
}

Just add string and you'll be fine.