IEnumerable Interface
Exposes an enumerator, which supports a simple iteration over a non-generic collection.
To browse the .NET Framework source code for this type, see the Reference Source.
Assembly: mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)
| Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|
![]() | GetEnumerator() | Returns an enumerator that iterates through a collection. |
| Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|
![]() | AsParallel() | Overloaded. Enables parallelization of a query.(Defined by ParallelEnumerable.) |
![]() | AsQueryable() | Overloaded. Converts an IEnumerable to an IQueryable.(Defined by Queryable.) |
![]() | Cast(Of TResult)() | Casts the elements of an IEnumerable to the specified type.(Defined by Enumerable.) |
![]() | OfType(Of TResult)() | Filters the elements of an IEnumerable based on a specified type.(Defined by Enumerable.) |
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To view the .NET Framework source code for this type, see the Reference Source. You can browse through the source code online, download the reference for offline viewing, and step through the sources (including patches and updates) during debugging; see instructions. |
IEnumerable is the base interface for all non-generic collections that can be enumerated. For the generic version of this interface see System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable(Of T). IEnumerable contains a single method, GetEnumerator, which returns an IEnumerator. IEnumerator provides the ability to iterate through the collection by exposing a Current property and MoveNext and Reset methods.
It is a best practice to implement IEnumerable and IEnumerator on your collection classes to enable the foreach (For Each in Visual Basic) syntax, however implementing IEnumerable is not required. If your collection does not implement IEnumerable, you must still follow the iterator pattern to support this syntax by providing a GetEnumerator method that returns an interface, class or struct. When using Visual Basic, you must provide an IEnumerator implementation, which is returned by GetEnumerator. When developing with C# you must provide a class that contains a Current property, and MoveNext and Reset methods as described by IEnumerator, but the class does not have to implement IEnumerator.
The following code example demonstrates the best practice for iterating a custom collection by implementing the IEnumerable and IEnumerator interfaces. In this example, members of these interfaces are not explicitly called, but they are implemented to support the use of foreach (For Each in Visual Basic) to iterate through the collection. This example is a complete Console app. To compile the Visual Basic app, change the Startup object to Sub Main in the project’s Properties page.
For a sample that shows how to implement the IEnumerable interface, see Implementing the IEnumerable Interface in a Collection Class
Imports System Imports System.Collections ' Simple business object. Public Class Person Public Sub New(ByVal fName As String, ByVal lName As String) Me.firstName = fName Me.lastName = lName End Sub Public firstName As String Public lastName As String End Class ' Collection of Person objects, which implements IEnumerable so that ' it can be used with ForEach syntax. Public Class People Implements IEnumerable Private _people() As Person Public Sub New(ByVal pArray() As Person) _people = New Person(pArray.Length - 1) {} Dim i As Integer For i = 0 To pArray.Length - 1 _people(i) = pArray(i) Next i End Sub ' Implementation of GetEnumerator. Public Function GetEnumerator() As IEnumerator _ Implements IEnumerable.GetEnumerator Return New PeopleEnum(_people) End Function End Class ' When you implement IEnumerable, you must also implement IEnumerator. Public Class PeopleEnum Implements IEnumerator Public _people() As Person ' Enumerators are positioned before the first element ' until the first MoveNext() call. Dim position As Integer = -1 Public Sub New(ByVal list() As Person) _people = list End Sub Public Function MoveNext() As Boolean Implements IEnumerator.MoveNext position = position + 1 Return (position < _people.Length) End Function Public Sub Reset() Implements IEnumerator.Reset position = -1 End Sub Public ReadOnly Property Current() As Object Implements IEnumerator.Current Get Try Return _people(position) Catch ex As IndexOutOfRangeException Throw New InvalidOperationException() End Try End Get End Property End Class Class App Shared Sub Main() Dim peopleArray() As Person = { _ New Person("John", "Smith"), _ New Person("Jim", "Johnson"), _ New Person("Sue", "Rabon")} Dim peopleList As New People(peopleArray) Dim p As Person For Each p In peopleList Console.WriteLine(p.firstName + " " + p.lastName) Next End Sub End Class ' This code produces output similar to the following: ' ' John Smith ' Jim Johnson ' Sue Rabon
Available since 8
.NET Framework
Available since 1.1
Portable Class Library
Supported in: portable .NET platforms
Silverlight
Available since 2.0
Windows Phone Silverlight
Available since 7.0
Windows Phone
Available since 8.1

