convert list of list into array of bytes

Question

I have list of integer list ,I'm working in shift coding so i have different length code for each stream, so i use list of list for each one because its re-sizable, i tried to store all the stream in one array of bytes and i fail so how can i converted to array of bytes...

like this:

list[10 item]
list[0] of list[5 item][0,0,1,0,3]
list[1] of list[4 item][0,0,1,1]

and convert it to array of bytes...

like this: array[bytes]=[0,0,1,0,3,0,0,1,1,3,0,0,.....]; the count of item in the inner list different from one item to another....

Answer 1

I think SelectMany is what you're looking for:

List<List<int>> foo = new List<List<int>> { new List<int> { 1, 2, 3 }, new List<int> { 1, 2 } };
var flat = foo.SelectMany(x => x).ToList();

Flat is now: 1, 2, 3, 1, 2

Answer 2

SelectMany gives you what you need:

var list = new List<List<int>>();
list.Add(new List<int>() {1, 2, 3});
list.Add(new List<int>() {4, 5, 6});
list.Add(new List<int>() {7, 8, 9});
var combined = list.SelectMany(x => x).Select(x=>(byte)x).ToArray();

At the end, you have a flattened array of bytes from a list of list of ints. Sounds like exactly what you're going for.

Answer 3

If you're happy with LINQ then you can "flatten" lists of lists and the like by using .SelectMany().

Like:

var array = listOfLists.SelectMany(x => x).ToArray();