Is this big complicated thing equal to this? or this? or this?

Question

Let's say I'm working with an object of class thing. The way I'm getting this object is a bit wordy:

 BigObjectThing.Uncle.PreferredInputStream.NthRelative(5) 

I'd like to see if this thing is equal to x or y or z. The naive way to write this might be:

 BigObjectThing.Uncle.PreferredInputStream.NthRelative(5) == x ||  BigObjectThing.Uncle.PreferredInputStream.NthRelative(5) == y ||  BigObjectThing.Uncle.PreferredInputStream.NthRelative(5) == z 

In some languages I could write something like this:

 BigObjectThing.Uncle.PreferredInputStream.NthRelative(5) == x |= y |= z 

but C# doesn't allow that.

Is there a C#-idiomatic way to write this test as a single expression?

Answer 1

Just use a variable:

var relative = BigObjectThing.Uncle.PreferredInputStream.NthRelative(5); return relative == x || relative == y || relative == z; 

Or if you want to get fancy with a larger set of things:

var relatives = new HashSet<thing>(new[] { x, y, z }); return relatives.Contains(BigObjectThing.Uncle.PreferredInputStream.NthRelative(5));