How do i exit a List<string>.ForEach loop when using an anonymous delegate?

In a normal loop you can break out of a loop using break. Can the same be done using an anonymous delegate?

Example inputString and result are both declared outside the delegate.

blackList.ForEach(new Action<string>(
    delegate(string item)
    {
        if(inputString.Contains(item)==true)
        {
            result = true;
            // I want to break here
        }
    }
));

Edit: Thanks for the replies, I'm actually reading your book at the minute John :) Just for the record i hit this issue and switched back to a normal foreach loop but I posted this question to see if i missed something.

Solution 1:

As others have posted, you can't exit the loop in ForEach.

Are you able to use LINQ? If so, you could easily combine TakeWhile and a custom ForEach extension method (which just about every project seems to have these days).

In your example, however, List<T>.FindIndex would be the best alternative - but if you're not actually doing that, please post an example of what you really want to do.

Solution 2:

There is no loop that one has access to, from which to break. And each call to the (anonymous) delegate is a new function call so local variables will not help. But since C# gives you a closure, you can set a flag and then do nothing in further calls:

bool stop = false;
myList.ForEach((a) => {
  if (stop) {
    return;
  } else if (a.SomeCondition()) {
    stop = true;
  }
});

(This needs to be tested to check if correct reference semantics for closure is generated.)

A more advanced approach would be to create your own extension method that allowed the delegate to return false to stop the loop:

static class MyExtensions {
  static void ForEachStoppable<T>(this IEnumerable<T> input, Func<T, bool> action) {
    foreach (T t in input) {
      if (!action(t)) {
        break;
      }
    }
  }
}

Solution 3:

Do you have LINQ available to you? Your logic seems similar to Any:

bool any = blackList.Any(s=>inputString.Contains(s));

which is the same as:

bool any = blackList.Any(inputString.Contains);

If you don't have LINQ, then this is still the same as:

bool any = blackList.Find(inputString.Contains) != null;

If you want to run additional logic, there are things you can do (with LINQ) with TakeWhile etc

Solution 4:

I don't think there's an elegant way to do it when using the ForEach method. A hacky solution is to throw an exception.

What's preventing you from doing an old fashioned foreach?

foreach (string item in blackList)
{
    if (!inputString.Contains(item)) continue;

    result = true;
    break;
}

Solution 5:

If you want a loop, use a loop.

Action allows for no return value, so there's no way the ForEach function could possibly know that you want to break, short of throwing an exception. Using an exception here is overkill.