Select vs SelectMany in C# LINQ

Dashrath Hapani
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Article

Introduction

Both Select and SelectMany are used to transform collections, but they behave differently when dealing with nested collections.

1️⃣ Select. Projects Each Item Individually

Used when transforming each item in a collection into another form.

Maintains the original structure (e.g., if the projection returns collections, the result will be a collection of collections).

Example 1. Using Select

List<string> words = new List<string> { "Hello", "World" };

// Using Select (returns List of char arrays)
var result = words.Select(w => w.ToCharArray());

foreach (var charArray in result)
{
    Console.WriteLine(string.Join(",", charArray));
}
Output:
Copy
Edit
H,e,l,l,o
W,o,r,l,d

Select transforms each word into a char[], but keeps them as separate arrays.
Type of result: IEnumerable<char[]> (a collection of char[] arrays).

2️⃣ SelectMany. Flattens Nested Collections

Used when each item in a collection maps to a sub-collection, and we want a single, flat collection.

Flattens the structure, combining all sub-elements into a single sequence.

Example 2. Using SelectMany

List<string> words = new List<string> { "Hello", "World" };

// Using SelectMany (returns a single flat list of characters)
var result = words.SelectMany(w => w.ToCharArray());

Console.WriteLine(string.Join(",", result));
Output:
Copy
Edit
H,e,l,l,o,W,o,r,l,d

SelectMany flattens the results, producing a single sequence of characters.
Type of result: IEnumerable<char> (a collection of characters, not arrays).