c# - LINQ - Full Outer Join

Question

I have a list of people's ID and their first name, and a list of people's ID and their surname. Some people don't have a first name and some don't have a surname; I'd like to do a full outer join on the two lists.

So the following lists:

ID  FirstName
--  ---------
 1  John
 2  Sue

ID  LastName
--  --------
 1  Doe
 3  Smith

Should produce:

ID  FirstName  LastName
--  ---------  --------
 1  John       Doe
 2  Sue
 3             Smith

I'm new to LINQ (so forgive me if I'm being lame) and have found quite a few solutions for 'LINQ Outer Joins' which all look quite similar, but really seem to be left outer joins.

My attempts so far go something like this:

private void OuterJoinTest()
{
    List<FirstName> firstNames = new List<FirstName>();
    firstNames.Add(new FirstName { ID = 1, Name = "John" });
    firstNames.Add(new FirstName { ID = 2, Name = "Sue" });

    List<LastName> lastNames = new List<LastName>();
    lastNames.Add(new LastName { ID = 1, Name = "Doe" });
    lastNames.Add(new LastName { ID = 3, Name = "Smith" });

    var outerJoin = from first in firstNames
        join last in lastNames
        on first.ID equals last.ID
        into temp
        from last in temp.DefaultIfEmpty()
        select new
        {
            id = first != null ? first.ID : last.ID,
            firstname = first != null ? first.Name : string.Empty,
            surname = last != null ? last.Name : string.Empty
        };
    }
}

public class FirstName
{
    public int ID;

    public string Name;
}

public class LastName
{
    public int ID;

    public string Name;
}

But this returns:

ID  FirstName  LastName
--  ---------  --------
 1  John       Doe
 2  Sue

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Update 1: providing a truly generalized extension method FullOuterJoin
Update 2: optionally accepting a custom IEqualityComparer for the key type
Update 3: this implementation has recently become part of MoreLinq - Thanks guys!

Edit Added FullOuterGroupJoin (ideone). I reused the GetOuter<> implementation, making this a fraction less performant than it could be, but I'm aiming for 'highlevel' code, not bleeding-edge optimized, right now.

See it live on http://ideone.com/O36nWc

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    var ax = new[] { 
        new { id = 1, name = "John" },
        new { id = 2, name = "Sue" } };
    var bx = new[] { 
        new { id = 1, surname = "Doe" },
        new { id = 3, surname = "Smith" } };

    ax.FullOuterJoin(bx, a => a.id, b => b.id, (a, b, id) => new {a, b})
        .ToList().ForEach(Console.WriteLine);
}

Prints the output:

{ a = { id = 1, name = John }, b = { id = 1, surname = Doe } }
{ a = { id = 2, name = Sue }, b =  }
{ a = , b = { id = 3, surname = Smith } }

You could also supply defaults: http://ideone.com/kG4kqO

    ax.FullOuterJoin(
            bx, a => a.id, b => b.id, 
            (a, b, id) => new { a.name, b.surname },
            new { id = -1, name    = "(no firstname)" },
            new { id = -2, surname = "(no surname)" }
        )

Printing:

{ name = John, surname = Doe }
{ name = Sue, surname = (no surname) }
{ name = (no firstname), surname = Smith }

Explanation of terms used:

Joining is a term borrowed from relational database design:

• A join will repeat elements from a as many times as there are elements in b with corresponding key (i.e.: nothing if b were empty). Database lingo calls this inner (equi)join.
• An outer join includes elements from a for which no corresponding element exists in b. (i.e.: even results if b were empty). This is usually referred to as left join.
• A full outer join includes records from a as well as b if no corresponding element exists in the other. (i.e. even results if a were empty)

Something not usually seen in RDBMS is a group join^[1]:

• A group join, does the same as described above, but instead of repeating elements from a for multiple corresponding b, it groups the records with corresponding keys. This is often more convenient when you wish to enumerate through 'joined' records, based on a common key.

See also GroupJoin which contains some general background explanations as well.

---

^[1] (I believe Oracle and MSSQL have proprietary extensions for this)

Full code

A generalized 'drop-in' Extension class for this

internal static class MyExtensions
{
    internal static IEnumerable<TResult> FullOuterGroupJoin<TA, TB, TKey, TResult>(
        this IEnumerable<TA> a,
        IEnumerable<TB> b,
        Func<TA, TKey> selectKeyA, 
        Func<TB, TKey> selectKeyB,
        Func<IEnumerable<TA>, IEnumerable<TB>, TKey, TResult> projection,
        IEqualityComparer<TKey> cmp = null)
    {
        cmp = cmp?? EqualityComparer<TKey>.Default;
        var alookup = a.ToLookup(selectKeyA, cmp);
        var blookup = b.ToLookup(selectKeyB, cmp);

        var keys = new HashSet<TKey>(alookup.Select(p => p.Key), cmp);
        keys.UnionWith(blookup.Select(p => p.Key));

        var join = from key in keys
                   let xa = alookup[key]
                   let xb = blookup[key]
                   select projection(xa, xb, key);

        return join;
    }

    internal static IEnumerable<TResult> FullOuterJoin<TA, TB, TKey, TResult>(
        this IEnumerable<TA> a,
        IEnumerable<TB> b,
        Func<TA, TKey> selectKeyA, 
        Func<TB, TKey> selectKeyB,
        Func<TA, TB, TKey, TResult> projection,
        TA defaultA = default(TA), 
        TB defaultB = default(TB),
        IEqualityComparer<TKey> cmp = null)
    {
        cmp = cmp?? EqualityComparer<TKey>.Default;
        var alookup = a.ToLookup(selectKeyA, cmp);
        var blookup = b.ToLookup(selectKeyB, cmp);

        var keys = new HashSet<TKey>(alookup.Select(p => p.Key), cmp);
        keys.UnionWith(blookup.Select(p => p.Key));

        var join = from key in keys
                   from xa in alookup[key].DefaultIfEmpty(defaultA)
                   from xb in blookup[key].DefaultIfEmpty(defaultB)
                   select projection(xa, xb, key);

        return join;
    }
}