VB.NET If-Else in List

Question

I just want to know if there's an approach in VB.NET that can find if a specific value exist on a list or something which can use in my If-else condition. What I'm doing now is to use this:

If ToStatus = "1CE" Or ToStatus = "2TL" Or ToStatus = "2PM" Then
    'Do something
Else
    'Do something
End If

This works fine, but how if I have hundreds of string to compare to ToStatus in the future? It will be a nightmare! Now, if such functionality exists, how can I add "And" and "Or" in the statement?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Like Slaks pointed out, you can use Contains on an enumerable collection. But I think readability suffers. I don't care if some list contains my variable; I want to know if my variable is in some list.

You can wrap contains in an extension method like so:

Imports System.Runtime.CompilerServices
Module ExtensionMethods

    <Extension()> _
    Public Function [In](Of T)(ByVal item As T, ByVal ParamArray range() As T) As Boolean
        Return range.Cast(Of T).Contains(item)
    End Function

End Module

Then call like this:

If ToStatus.In("1CE","2TL","2PM") Then