Enumerable.Empty Method

public:
generic 
 static System::Collections::Generic::IEnumerable ^ Empty();

public static System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable Empty();

static member Empty : unit -> seq<'Result>

Public Function Empty(Of TResult) () As IEnumerable(Of TResult)

Type Parameters

Returns

An empty IEnumerable whose type argument is TResult.

Examples

The following code example demonstrates how to use Empty() to generate an empty IEnumerable.

IEnumerable empty = Enumerable.Empty();

' Create an empty sequence.
Dim empty As IEnumerable(Of Decimal) = Enumerable.Empty(Of Decimal)()

The following code example demonstrates a possible application of the Empty() method. The Aggregate method is applied to a collection of string arrays. The elements of each array in the collection are added to the resulting IEnumerable only if that array contains four or more elements. Empty is used to generate the seed value for Aggregate because if no array in the collection has four or more elements, only the empty sequence is returned.

string[] names1 = { "Hartono, Tommy" };
string[] names2 = { "Adams, Terry", "Andersen, Henriette Thaulow",
                      "Hedlund, Magnus", "Ito, Shu" };
string[] names3 = { "Solanki, Ajay", "Hoeing, Helge",
                      "Andersen, Henriette Thaulow",
                      "Potra, Cristina", "Iallo, Lucio" };

List namesList =
    new List { names1, names2, names3 };

// Only include arrays that have four or more elements
IEnumerable allNames =
    namesList.Aggregate(Enumerable.Empty(),
    (current, next) => next.Length > 3 ? current.Union(next) : current);

foreach (string name in allNames)
{
    Console.WriteLine(name);
}

/*
 This code produces the following output:

 Adams, Terry
 Andersen, Henriette Thaulow
 Hedlund, Magnus
 Ito, Shu
 Solanki, Ajay
 Hoeing, Helge
 Potra, Cristina
 Iallo, Lucio
*/

' Create three string arrays.
Dim names1() As String =
{"Hartono, Tommy"}
Dim names2() As String =
{"Adams, Terry", "Andersen, Henriette Thaulow", "Hedlund, Magnus", "Ito, Shu"}
Dim names3() As String =
{"Solanki, Ajay", "Hoeing, Helge", "Andersen, Henriette Thaulow", "Potra, Cristina", "Iallo, Lucio"}

' Create a List that contains 3 elements, where
' each element is an array of strings.
Dim namesList As New List(Of String())(New String()() {names1, names2, names3})

' Select arrays that have four or more elements and union
' them into one collection, using Empty() to generate the
' empty collection for the seed value.
Dim allNames As IEnumerable(Of String) =
namesList.Aggregate(Enumerable.Empty(Of String)(),
                    Function(current, nextOne) _
                        IIf(nextOne.Length > 3, current.Union(nextOne), current))

Dim output As New System.Text.StringBuilder
For Each name As String In allNames
    output.AppendLine(name)
Next

' Display the output.
Console.WriteLine(output.ToString())

' This code produces the following output:
'
' Adams, Terry
' Andersen, Henriette Thaulow
' Hedlund, Magnus
' Ito, Shu
' Solanki, Ajay
' Hoeing, Helge
' Potra, Cristina
' Iallo, Lucio

Remarks

The Empty() method caches an empty sequence of type TResult. When the object it returns is enumerated, it yields no elements.

In some cases, this method is useful for passing an empty sequence to a user-defined method that takes an IEnumerable. It can also be used to generate a neutral element for methods such as Union. See the Example section for an example of this use of Empty().