Introduction
In order to select the last record from a list of entities with LINQ, we use the Last or the LastOrDefault methods.
Last
The Last method returns the last element of a list , or an InvalidOperationException if the list of elements is empty.
LastOrDefault
The LastOrDefault method returns the last element of a list , or a Default value if the list of elements is empty.
-
If the empty list is a list of integer values, then the default value is
0 -
If the empty list is a list of boolean values, then the default value is
false -
If the empty list is a list of nullable values, then the default value is
null
See the Default values table in C#
Examples
Non empty list
List<int> list = new List<int> { 5, 10, 12, 7, 99};
int value1 = list.Last(); // 99
int value2 = list.LastOrDefault(); // 99
Empty list
List<int> list = new List<int> { };
int value1 = list.Last(); // InvalidOperationException
int value2 = list.LastOrDefault(); // 0
List of nullable values
List<string> list = new List<string> { };
string value1 = list.Last(); // InvalidOperationException
string value2 = list.LastOrDefault(); // null
Namespace
To use the Last or the LastOrDefault methods, you have to include this namespace:
using System.Linq;