New LINQ methods in C# 13: Index, CountBy, AggregateBy

Published October 23, 2024

Tim Deschryver

timdeschryver.dev

In this article, we will explore the new LINQ methods that (normally) will be introduced in C# 13, as part of the .NET 9 release during .NET Conf 2024. These new methods are Index, CountBy, and AggregateBy.

The examples throughout this article use the following data collection. We have a collection of 5 students, each with a name and a score.

 content_paste
Student[] students = [
    new("Alice", "A"),
    new("Bob", "B"),
    new("Charlie", "C"),
    new("David", "B"),
    new("Eve", "A")
];
 
record Student (string Name, string Score);

Index link

The Index() method (Enumerable.Index) adds an index to each element in the collection. The index is a 0-based integer that represents the position of the element in the collection.

The example below simply adds an index to each student in the collection.

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IEnumerable<(int, Student)> studentsWithIndex = students.Index();
 
foreach (var (index, student) in studentsWithIndex)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Student {index}: {student.Name}");
}

Output:

 content_paste
Student 0: Alice
Student 1: Bob
Student 2: Charlie
Student 3: David
Student 4: Eve

CountBy link

The CountBy() method (Enumerable.CountBy<TSource, TKey>) groups the elements in the collection by a key and returns the count of elements in each group.

The example below groups the students by their score and counts the number of students in each group.

 content_paste
IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<string, int>> studentsByScore = students
    .CountBy(keySelector: student => student.Score);
 
foreach (var (score, count) in studentsByScore)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Students with a {score}-score: {count}");
}

Output:

 content_paste
Students with a A-score: 2
Students with a B-score: 2
Students with a C-score: 1

It's also possible to use add an expression to build the identifier for the group. The example below groups the students by their score ("A" or "B" means the student has passed) and counts the number of students that passed or failed.

 content_paste
IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<bool, int>> studentsCountPassedOrFailed = students
    .CountBy(keySelector: student => student.Score is "A" or "B");
 
foreach (var (passed, count) in studentsCountPassedOrFailed)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Students that {(passed ? "passed" : "failed")}: {count}");
}

Output:

 content_paste
Students that passed: 4
Students that failed: 1

CountBy() can also accept a comparer (IEqualityComparer<TKey>? keyComparer) as the second argument.

AggregateBy link

The AggregateBy() method (Enumerable.AggregateBy<TSource, TKey, TAccumulate>) groups the elements in the collection by a key and aggregates (similar to Aggregate()) the elements in each group.

The first argument is the key selector, creating the group. The second argument is the initial value (seed) for each group. The third argument is the function that aggregates the elements in the group, it receives the value of the group and the current element.

The example below groups students by their scores.

 content_paste
IEnumerable<KeyValuePair<string, List<string>>> studentsByScore = students
    .AggregateBy(
        keySelector: student => student.Score,
        seed: new List<string>(),
        func: (group, student) => [..group, student.Name]
    );
 
foreach (var (score, studentGroup) in studentsByScore)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Students with a {score}-score: {string.Join(", ", studentGroup)}");
}

Output:

 content_paste
Students with a A-score: Alice, Eve
Students with a B-score: Bob, David
Students with a C-score: Charlie

CountAggregateByBy() can also accept a comparer (IEqualityComparer<TKey>? keyComparer) as the last argument.

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