How to count duplicates based on a property in a list of objects with LINQ

c#, linq

Solution

You can use "group by" + "orderby". See LINQ 101 for details

var list = new List<string> {"a", "b", "a", "c", "a", "b"};
var q = from x in list
        group x by x into g
        let count = g.Count()
        orderby count descending
        select new {Value = g.Key, Count = count};
foreach (var x in q)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Value: " + x.Value + " Count: " + x.Count);
}

In response to this post (now deleted):

If you have a list of some custom objects then you need to use custom comparer or group by specific property.

Also query can't display result. Show us complete code to get a better help.

Based on your latest update:

You have this line of code:

group xx by xx into g

Since xx is a custom object system doesn't know how to compare one item against another. As I already wrote, you need to guide compiler and provide some property that will be used in objects comparison or provide custom comparer. Here is an example:

Note that I use Foo.Name as a key - i.e. objects will be grouped based on value of Name property.

There is one catch - you treat 2 objects to be duplicate based on their names, but what about Id ? In my example I just take Id of the first object in a group. If your objects have different Ids it can be a problem.

//Using extension methods
var q = list.GroupBy(x => x.Name)
            .Select(x => new {Count = x.Count(), 
                              Name = x.Key, 
                              ID = x.First().ID})
            .OrderByDescending(x => x.Count);

//Using LINQ
var q = from x in list
        group x by x.Name into g
        let count = g.Count()
        orderby count descending
        select new {Name = g.Key, Count = count, ID = g.First().ID};

foreach (var x in q)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Count: " + x.Count + " Name: " + x.Name + " ID: " + x.ID);
}

Problem

Original source