Conversion Operators

The Conversion operators in LINQ are useful in converting the type of the elements in a sequence (collection). There are three types of conversion operators: As operators (AsEnumerable and AsQueryable), To operators (ToArray, ToDictionary, ToList and ToLookup), and Casting operators (Cast and OfType).

The following table lists all the conversion operators.

Method	Description
AsEnumerable	Returns the input sequence as IEnumerable<t>
AsQueryable	Converts IEnumerable<T> to IQueryable, to simulate a remote query provider
Cast	Coverts a non-generic collection to a generic collection (IEnumerable to IEnumerable<T>)
OfType	Filters a collection based on a specified type
ToArray	Converts a collection to an array
ToDictionary	Puts elements into a Dictionary based on key selector function
ToList	Converts collection to List<T>
ToLookup	Groups elements into an Lookup<TKey,TElement>

AsEnumerable & AsQueryable

The AsEnumerable and AsQueryable methods cast or convert a source object to IEnumerable<T> or IQueryable<T> respectively.

Consider the following example: (courtesy: Jon Skeet)

Example: AsEnumerable & AsQueryable operator in C#:

class Program
{

    static void ReportTypeProperties<T>(T obj)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Compile-time type: {0}", typeof(T).Name);
        Console.WriteLine("Actual type: {0}", obj.GetType().Name);
    }

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Student[] studentArray = { 
                new Student() { StudentID = 1, StudentName = "John", Age = 18 } ,
                new Student() { StudentID = 2, StudentName = "Steve",  Age = 21 } ,
                new Student() { StudentID = 3, StudentName = "Bill",  Age = 25 } ,
                new Student() { StudentID = 4, StudentName = "Ram" , Age = 20 } ,
                new Student() { StudentID = 5, StudentName = "Ron" , Age = 31 } ,
            };   
            
        ReportTypeProperties( studentArray);
        ReportTypeProperties(studentArray.AsEnumerable());
        ReportTypeProperties(studentArray.AsQueryable());   
    }
}

Try it

Output:

Compile-time type: Student[] Actual type: Student[] Compile-time type: IEnumerable`1 Actual type: Student[] Compile-time type: IQueryable`1 Actual type: EnumerableQuery`1

As you can see in the above example AsEnumerable and AsQueryable methods convert compile time type to IEnumerable and IQueryable respectively

Visit stackoverflow for detail information on AsEnumerable and AsQueryable method.

Cast

Cast does the same thing as AsEnumerable<T>. It cast the source object into IEnumerable<T>.

Example: Cast operator in C#

class Program
{

    static void ReportTypeProperties<T>(T obj)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Compile-time type: {0}", typeof(T).Name);
        Console.WriteLine("Actual type: {0}", obj.GetType().Name);
    }

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Student[] studentArray = { 
                new Student() { StudentID = 1, StudentName = "John", Age = 18 } ,
                new Student() { StudentID = 2, StudentName = "Steve",  Age = 21 } ,
                new Student() { StudentID = 3, StudentName = "Bill",  Age = 25 } ,
                new Student() { StudentID = 4, StudentName = "Ram" , Age = 20 } ,
                new Student() { StudentID = 5, StudentName = "Ron" , Age = 31 } ,
            };   
         
        ReportTypeProperties( studentArray);
        ReportTypeProperties(studentArray.Cast<Student>());
    }
}

Try it

Output:

Compile-time type: Student[] Actual type: Student[] Compile-time type: IEnumerable`1 Actual type: Student[] Compile-time type: IEnumerable`1 Actual type: Student[] Compile-time type: IEnumerable`1 Actual type: Student[]

studentArray.Cast<Student>() is the same as (IEnumerable<Student>)studentArray but Cast<Student>() is more readable.

To Operators: ToArray(), ToList(), ToDictionary()

As the name suggests, ToArray(), ToList(), ToDictionary() method converts a source object into an array, List or Dictionary respectively.

To operators force the execution of the query. It forces the remote query provider to execute a query and get the result from the underlying data source e.g. SQL Server database.

Example: ToArray & ToList in C#

IList<string> strList = new List<string>() { 
                                            "One", 
                                            "Two", 
                                            "Three", 
                                            "Four", 
                                            "Three" 
                                            };

string[] strArray = strList.ToArray<string>();// converts List to Array

IList<string> list = strArray.ToList<string>(); // converts array into list

Try it

ToDictionary - Converts a Generic list to a generic dictionary:

Example: ToDictionary in C#:

IList<Student> studentList = new List<Student>() { 
                    new Student() { StudentID = 1, StudentName = "John", age = 18 } ,
                    new Student() { StudentID = 2, StudentName = "Steve",  age = 21 } ,
                    new Student() { StudentID = 3, StudentName = "Bill",  age = 18 } ,
                    new Student() { StudentID = 4, StudentName = "Ram" , age = 20 } ,
                    new Student() { StudentID = 5, StudentName = "Ron" , age = 21 } 
                };

//following converts list into dictionary where StudentId is a key
IDictionary<int, Student> studentDict = 
                                studentList.ToDictionary<Student, int>(s =&gt; s.StudentID); 

foreach(var key in studentDict.Keys)
	Console.WriteLine("Key: {0}, Value: {1}", 
                                key, (studentDict[key] as Student).StudentName);

Try it

Output:

Key: 1, Value: John Key: 2, Value: Steve Key: 3, Value: Bill Key: 4, Value: Ram Key: 5, Value: Ron

The following figure shows how studentDict in the above example contains a key-value pair, where key is a StudentID and the value is Student object.