convert foreach to LINQ statement using where

Question

How to rewrite given foreach loop using LINQ where statemetn?

List<ItemData> dbItems = _dataService.GetAllItems();
List<ItemModel> modeList = new List<ItemModel>();
foreach (ItemData p in dbItems )
{
    ItemModel m = Mapper.ItemDataToModelMap(p);
    modeList.Add(m);
}

I have tried this, but this gives error: Cannot implicitly convert type 'System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable' to 'System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable'...

 var modeList= from m in dbItems 
     select new {item = Mapper.ItemDataToModelMap(m)     
 };

Edit: The method that uses this should return IEnumerable, so this is the error cause. I should not change return type, instaed the code and anonymous type.

Answer 1

To have a List<ItemModel> as a result try this:

var modeList = dbItems
    .Select(m => Mapper.ItemDatatoModelMap(m))
    .ToList();

Using query notation:

var modeList = (from m in dbItems select Mapper.ItemDataToModelMap(m))
    .ToList();

new { ... } notation creates an anonymous type , while you need a List<T> with a particular type - ItemModel .

Also note, that there is nothing wrong syntactically with:

var modeList= from m in dbItems 
    select new {item = Mapper.ItemDataToModelMap(m)};

But your description of the error is not clear. You're either not using var as you've presented (but List<ItemModel> ), or doing something else with modeList that leads to a type mismatch.

Answer 2

Bit pre coffee here, but is this what you are looking for:

var modeList= from m in dbItems 
     select Mapper.ItemDataToModelMap(m);