Convert a Generic List to specific type

Question

I have a List which contains some values.

Example:

List<object> testData = new List <object>();
testData.Add(new List<object> { "aaa", "bbb", "ccc" });
testData.Add(new List<object> { "ddd", "eee", "fff" });
testData.Add(new List<object> { "ggg", "hhh", "iii" });

And I have a class like

class TestClass
{
    public string AAA {get;set;}
    public string BBB {get;set;}
    public string CCC {get;set;}
}

How to convert the testData to the type List<TestClass> ?

Is there a way to convert other than this?

testData.Select(x => new TestClass()
{
   AAA = (string)x[0],
   BBB = (string)x[1],
   CCC = (string)x[2]
}).ToList();

I don't want to mention the column names, so that I can use this code irrespective of class changes.

I also have a IEnumerable<Dictionary<string, object>> which has the data.

Answer 1

You have to explicitly create the TestClass objects, and moreover cast the outer objects to List<object> and the inner objects to strings.

testData.Cast<List<object>>().Select(x => new TestClass() {AAA = (string)x[0], BBB = (string)x[1], CCC = (string)x[2]}).ToList()

You could also create a constructor in TestClass that takes List<object> and does the dirty work for you:

public TestClass(List<object> l)
{
    this.AAA = (string)l[0];
    //...
}

Then:

testData.Cast<List<object>>().Select(x => new TestClass(x)).ToList()