Split a collection into `n` parts with LINQ?

Question

Is there a nice way to split a collection into n parts with LINQ? Not necessarily evenly of course.

That is, I want to divide the collection into sub-collections, which each contains a subset of the elements, where the last collection can be ragged.

Answer 1

This is my code, nice and short.

 <Extension()> Public Function Chunk(Of T)(ByVal this As IList(Of T), ByVal size As Integer) As List(Of List(Of T))
     Dim result As New List(Of List(Of T))
     For i = 0 To CInt(Math.Ceiling(this.Count / size)) - 1
         result.Add(New List(Of T)(this.GetRange(i * size, Math.Min(size, this.Count - (i * size)))))
     Next
     Return result
 End Function

Answer 2

static class LinqExtensions
{
    public static IEnumerable<IEnumerable<T>> Split<T>(this IEnumerable<T> list, int parts)
    {
            return list.Select((item, index) => new {index, item})
                       .GroupBy(x => x.index % parts)
                       .Select(x => x.Select(y => y.item));
    }
}

Answer 3

If order in these parts is not very important you can try this:

int[] array = new int[] { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 };
int n = 3;

var result =
   array.Select((value, index) => new { Value = value, Index = index }).GroupBy(i => i.Index % n, i => i.Value);

// or
var result2 =
   from i in array.Select((value, index) => new { Value = value, Index = index })
   group i.Value by i.Index % n into g
   select g;

However these can't be cast to IEnumerable<IEnumerable<int>> by some reason...

Answer 4

This is my way, listing items and breaking row by columns

  int repat_count=4;

  arrItems.ForEach((x, i) => {
    if (i % repat_count == 0) 
        row = tbo.NewElement(el_tr, cls_min_height);
    var td = row.NewElement(el_td);
    td.innerHTML = x.Name;
  });

Answer 5

Great Answers, for my scenario i tested the accepted answer , and it seems it does not keep order. there is also great answer by Nawfal that keeps order. But in my scenario i wanted to split the remainder in a normalized way, all answers i saw spread the remainder or at the beginning or at the end.

My answer also takes the remainder spreading in more normalized way.

 static class Program
{          
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var input = new List<String>();
        for (int k = 0; k < 18; ++k)
        {
            input.Add(k.ToString());
        }
        var result = splitListIntoSmallerLists(input, 15);            
        int i = 0;
        foreach(var resul in result){
            Console.WriteLine("------Segment:" + i.ToString() + "--------");
            foreach(var res in resul){
                Console.WriteLine(res);
            }
            i++;
        }
        Console.ReadLine();
    }

    private static List<List<T>> splitListIntoSmallerLists<T>(List<T> i_bigList,int i_numberOfSmallerLists)
    {
        if (i_numberOfSmallerLists <= 0)
            throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("Illegal value of numberOfSmallLists");

        int normalizedSpreadRemainderCounter = 0;
        int normalizedSpreadNumber = 0;
        //e.g 7 /5 > 0 ==> output size is 5 , 2 /5 < 0 ==> output is 2          
        int minimumNumberOfPartsInEachSmallerList = i_bigList.Count / i_numberOfSmallerLists;                        
        int remainder = i_bigList.Count % i_numberOfSmallerLists;
        int outputSize = minimumNumberOfPartsInEachSmallerList > 0 ? i_numberOfSmallerLists : remainder;
        //In case remainder > 0 we want to spread the remainder equally between the others         
        if (remainder > 0)
        {
            if (minimumNumberOfPartsInEachSmallerList > 0)
            {
                normalizedSpreadNumber = (int)Math.Floor((double)i_numberOfSmallerLists / remainder);    
            }
            else
            {
                normalizedSpreadNumber = 1;
            }   
        }
        List<List<T>> retVal = new List<List<T>>(outputSize);
        int inputIndex = 0;            
        for (int i = 0; i < outputSize; ++i)
        {
            retVal.Add(new List<T>());
            if (minimumNumberOfPartsInEachSmallerList > 0)
            {
                retVal[i].AddRange(i_bigList.GetRange(inputIndex, minimumNumberOfPartsInEachSmallerList));
                inputIndex += minimumNumberOfPartsInEachSmallerList;
            }
            //If we have remainder take one from it, if our counter is equal to normalizedSpreadNumber.
            if (remainder > 0)
            {
                if (normalizedSpreadRemainderCounter == normalizedSpreadNumber-1)
                {
                    retVal[i].Add(i_bigList[inputIndex]);
                    remainder--;
                    inputIndex++;
                    normalizedSpreadRemainderCounter=0;
                }
                else
                {
                    normalizedSpreadRemainderCounter++;
                }
            }
        }
        return retVal;
    }      

}

Answer 6

Here is a little tweak for the number of items instead of the number of parts:

public static class MiscExctensions
{
    public static IEnumerable<IEnumerable<T>> Split<T>(this IEnumerable<T> list, int nbItems)
    {
        return (
            list
            .Select((o, n) => new { o, n })
            .GroupBy(g => (int)(g.n / nbItems))
            .Select(g => g.Select(x => x.o))
        );
    }
}