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

Question

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.