Enumerable.SingleOrDefault(TSource) Method (IEnumerable(TSource))
Returns the only element of a sequence, or a default value if the sequence is empty; this method throws an exception if there is more than one element in the sequence.
Assembly: System.Core (in System.Core.dll)
Type Parameters
- TSource
The type of the elements of source.
Parameters
- source
- Type: System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable(TSource)
An IEnumerable(T) to return the single element of.
Return Value
Type: TSourceThe single element of the input sequence, or default(TSource) if the sequence contains no elements.
Usage Note
In Visual Basic and C#, you can call this method as an instance method on any object of type IEnumerable(TSource). When you use instance method syntax to call this method, omit the first parameter. For more information, see Extension Methods (Visual Basic) or Extension Methods (C# Programming Guide).| Exception | Condition |
|---|---|
| ArgumentNullException | source is a null reference (Nothing in Visual Basic). |
| InvalidOperationException | The input sequence contains more than one element. |
The default value for reference and nullable types is a null reference (Nothing in Visual Basic).
The SingleOrDefault method does not provide a way to specify a default value. If you want to specify a default value other than default(TSource), use the DefaultIfEmpty(TSource)(IEnumerable(TSource), TSource) method as described in the Example section.
The following code example demonstrates how to use SingleOrDefault(TSource)(IEnumerable(TSource)) to select the only element of an array.
The following code example demonstrates that SingleOrDefault(TSource)(IEnumerable(TSource)) returns a default value when the sequence does not contain exactly one element.
Sometimes the value of default(TSource) is not the default value that you want to use if the collection contains no elements. Instead of checking the result for the unwanted default value and then changing it if necessary, you can use the DefaultIfEmpty(TSource)(IEnumerable(TSource), TSource) method to specify the default value that you want to use if the collection is empty. Then, call Single(TSource)(IEnumerable(TSource)) to obtain the element. The following code example uses both techniques to obtain a default value of 1 if a collection of page numbers is empty. Because the default value for an integer is 0, which is not usually a valid page number, the default value must be specified as 1 instead. The first result variable is checked for the unwanted default value after the query has finished executing. The second result variable is obtained by using DefaultIfEmpty(TSource)(IEnumerable(TSource), TSource) to specify a default value of 1.
Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows CE, Windows Mobile for Smartphone, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC, Xbox 360, Zune
The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.