Mix Any() and First() in LINQ?

Question

First Im a noob in LINQ ! Then, the thing is that I have a Collection that :

1. either does not contain my ID (string)
2. or contains it ONLY once

I wanted to use Where but I don't like the if instructions that I have to do... so here is my code :

if (MyCollection.Any(rm => rm.BaseName == rbName))
{
    var tmp = MyCollection.First(rm => rm.BaseName == rbName);
}

This works but I really feel like this is not the way I should do it with LINQ... Any suggestion ?

Answer 1

Non-Unique Entity Answer (with exception throwing on multiple instances)

Use SingleOrDefault. This will return the unique item if it exists, null if it doesn't exist or it will throw and exception if there is more than one.

var tmp = MyCollection.SingleOrDefault(rm => rm.BaseName == rbName);

Unique Property Answer (there will never be multiple instances)

If your system is set up so that BaseName is a unique entity, user FirstOrDefault, this won't throw an exception if there are multiple as it will stop at the first instance, but the system will be designed so there will never be the same instance, so it would be acceptable (and time reducing).

var tmp = MyCollection.FirstOrDefault(rm => rm.BaseName == rbName);