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List.Contains Method

.NET Framework 2.0
Determines whether an element is in the List.

Namespace: System.Collections.Generic
Assembly: mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)

C#
C++
VB
Copy 
public bool Contains (
	T item
)
J#
Copy 
public final boolean Contains (
	T item
)
JScript
Copy 
public final function Contains (
	item : T
) : boolean
XAML
Copy 
Not applicable.

Parameters

item

The object to locate in the List. The value can be a null reference (Nothing in Visual Basic) for reference types.

Return Value

true if item is found in the List; otherwise, false.

This method determines equality using the default equality comparer EqualityComparer.Default for T, the type of values in the list.

This method performs a linear search; therefore, this method is an O(n) operation, where n is Count.

The following code example demonstrates the Contains method and various other properties and methods of the List generic class. After the list has been populated, the Contains method is used to search for an item.

C#
C++
VB
Copy 
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public class Example
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        List<string> dinosaurs = new List<string>();

        Console.WriteLine("\nCapacity: {0}", dinosaurs.Capacity);

        dinosaurs.Add("Tyrannosaurus");
        dinosaurs.Add("Amargasaurus");
        dinosaurs.Add("Mamenchisaurus");
        dinosaurs.Add("Deinonychus");
        dinosaurs.Add("Compsognathus");

        Console.WriteLine();
        foreach(string dinosaur in dinosaurs)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(dinosaur);
        }

        Console.WriteLine("\nCapacity: {0}", dinosaurs.Capacity);
        Console.WriteLine("Count: {0}", dinosaurs.Count);

        Console.WriteLine("\nContains(\"Deinonychus\"): {0}",
            dinosaurs.Contains("Deinonychus"));

        Console.WriteLine("\nInsert(2, \"Compsognathus\")");
        dinosaurs.Insert(2, "Compsognathus");

        Console.WriteLine();
        foreach(string dinosaur in dinosaurs)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(dinosaur);
        }

        Console.WriteLine("\ndinosaurs[3]: {0}", dinosaurs[3]);

        Console.WriteLine("\nRemove(\"Compsognathus\")");
        dinosaurs.Remove("Compsognathus");

        Console.WriteLine();
        foreach(string dinosaur in dinosaurs)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(dinosaur);
        }

        dinosaurs.TrimExcess();
        Console.WriteLine("\nTrimExcess()");
        Console.WriteLine("Capacity: {0}", dinosaurs.Capacity);
        Console.WriteLine("Count: {0}", dinosaurs.Count);

        dinosaurs.Clear();
        Console.WriteLine("\nClear()");
        Console.WriteLine("Capacity: {0}", dinosaurs.Capacity);
        Console.WriteLine("Count: {0}", dinosaurs.Count);
    }
}

/* This code example produces the following output:

Capacity: 0

Tyrannosaurus
Amargasaurus
Mamenchisaurus
Deinonychus
Compsognathus

Capacity: 8
Count: 5

Contains("Deinonychus"): True

Insert(2, "Compsognathus")

Tyrannosaurus
Amargasaurus
Compsognathus
Mamenchisaurus
Deinonychus
Compsognathus

dinosaurs[3]: Mamenchisaurus

Remove("Compsognathus")

Tyrannosaurus
Amargasaurus
Mamenchisaurus
Deinonychus
Compsognathus

TrimExcess()
Capacity: 5
Count: 5

Clear()
Capacity: 5
Count: 0
 */

Windows 98, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows CE, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC, Windows Mobile for Smartphone, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Starter Edition

The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 is supported on Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows XP SP2, and Windows Server 2003 SP1.

.NET Framework

Supported in: 3.0, 2.0

.NET Compact Framework

Supported in: 2.0

XNA Framework

Supported in: 1.0
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Performance Considerations

List.Contains will perform a sequential search through the list to find the specified item.  If the list is large, or Contains will be called many times, this could result in low performance.  For these cases, consider using the Dictionary class instead of the List class.

Dictionary Generic Class:
http://community.lab.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/mtpswiki/xfhwa508.aspx

 

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