Extension method on ObservableCollection<MyType>, MyType : IEnumerable<MyType>

Question

I'm having trouble creating an extension method on an ObservableCollection for a custom type. The extension method I need to create is the "ToAnotherType" kind (as in, ToList, ToArray). The MyPoint example implements the IEnumerable interface, but I think I am not exposing the yield correctly?

The real thing obviously has more stuff going on, this is just a stripped down sample in a console app to identify the issue. I've tried changing the OC to a regular List to see if something was going on there, but it's not.

I see many of the "How to make your class Enumerable" examples create a second class derived from List (IE, public class MyPointList : List) but that seems wasteful when the original type can handle it itself, or have it pushed off in a partial class file.

It all looks like it's working until the foreach in the extension method itself- Where I get an error saying 'MyPoint' does not contain a definition for 'X' and 'Y'.

I could obviously handle the conversion with a method that takes in a List and returns a List, but it would be really nice to have the extension.

references as to how I ended up with code I did: https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/474678/A-Beginners-Tutorial-on-Implementing-IEnumerable-I

https://dotnetcodr.com/2015/07/24/implementing-an-enumerator-for-a-custom-object-in-net-c/

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Collections.ObjectModel;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Collections;

namespace EnumerableDemo
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var myPoints = new ObservableCollection<MyPoint>
            {
                new MyPoint(10, 10),
                new MyPoint(20, 20),
                new MyPoint(30, 30),
                new MyPoint(40, 40),
                new MyPoint(50, 50)
            };

            Console.WriteLine("Print a single point via extension method:");
            PrintSinglePointToConsole(myPoints[0].ToPoint());

            Console.WriteLine("");
            Console.WriteLine("Print the whole OC of points:");
            PrintPointsToConsole(myPoints.ToPoints());
            Console.ReadLine();
        }

        public static void PrintSinglePointToConsole(Point point)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Point {0},{1}", point.X, point.Y);
        }

        public static void PrintPointsToConsole(List<Point> points)
        {
            foreach (var item in points)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Point: {0},{1}", item.X, item.Y);
            }
        }

    }

    public class MyPoint : IEnumerable<MyPoint>
    {
        private List<MyPoint> _myPoints = new List<MyPoint>();

        private int _x { get; set; } = 0;
        public int X { get { return _x; } set { _x = value; } }

        private int _y { get; set; } = 0;
        public int Y { get { return _y; } set { _y = value; } }

        public MyPoint()
        {
        }

        public MyPoint(int x, int y)
        {
            _x = x;
            _y = y;
        }

        public IEnumerator<MyPoint> GetEnumerator()
        {
            foreach (var item in _myPoints)
            {
                yield return item;
            }
        }

        IEnumerator IEnumerable.GetEnumerator()
        {
            return GetEnumerator();
        }
    }

    public static class MyPointExtension
    {
        public static Point ToPoint(this MyPoint point)
        {
            return new Point(point.X, point.Y);
        }

        public static List<Point> ToPoints<MyPoint>(this ObservableCollection<MyPoint> list)
        {
            var result = new List<Point>();

            foreach (var item in list)
            {
                //Line with error: 
                //'MyPoint' Does not contain a definition for 'X' and no extension method for
                //'X' accepting a first argument type of 'MyPoint' could be found.
                result.Add(new Point(item.X, item.Y));
            }

            return result;
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

You don't need a MyPoint generic parameter in ToPoints .

Just use

public static List<Point> ToPoints(this ObservableCollection<MyPoint> list)

And the result is:

Print a single point via extension method:
Point 10,10

Print the whole OC of points:
Point: 10,10
Point: 20,20
Point: 30,30
Point: 40,40
Point: 50,50

BTW, you can also make a code a bit cleaner and shorter if you discard the _x and _y fields, like this:

public int X { get; set; } = 0;
public int Y { get; set; } = 0;

public MyPoint(int x, int y)
{
    X = x;
    Y = y;
}

Answer 2

Final code block, which makes use of the other extension method ToPoint

public static List<Point> ToPoints(this ObservableCollection<MyPoint> list)
{
    var result = new List<Point>();

    foreach (var item in list)
    {
        result.Add(item.ToPoint());
    }

    return result;
}