How to join two List<string> in c# using LINQ

Question

I have 2 separate country attributes in the XML element z:row, returned from SharePoint web services.

var homeCountry = (from xml in doc.Descendants(z + "row") select xml.Attribute("ows_Country").Value).Distinct();

    var covCountry = (from xml in doc.Descendants(z + "row")
                      where xml.Attribute("ows_Coverage_x0020_Area_x0020_by_x00").Value != ""
                      select xml.Attribute("ows_Coverage_x0020_Area_x0020_by_x00").Value);

Now I want to merge both of the lists, in order to get the distinct country names and load the dropdow dox.

distinctCountriesList.Add("");
        distinctCountriesList.Sort();
        country.DataSource = distinctCountriesList.Distinct();

        country.DataBind();

Answer 1

var distinctCountriesList = homeCountry.Union(covCountry).ToList();

Answer 2

country.DataSource = homeCountry
    .Union(convCountry)
    .ToList();

country.DataBind();