c# - Split a List into smaller lists of N size

Question

I am attempting to split a list into a series of smaller lists.

My Problem: My function to split lists doesn't split them into lists of the correct size. It should split them into lists of size 30 but instead it splits them into lists of size 114?

How can I make my function split a list into X number of Lists of size 30 or less?

public static List<List<float[]>> splitList(List <float[]> locations, int nSize=30) 
{       
    List<List<float[]>> list = new List<List<float[]>>();

    for (int i=(int)(Math.Ceiling((decimal)(locations.Count/nSize))); i>=0; i--) {
        List <float[]> subLocat = new List <float[]>(locations); 

        if (subLocat.Count >= ((i*nSize)+nSize))
            subLocat.RemoveRange(i*nSize, nSize);
        else subLocat.RemoveRange(i*nSize, subLocat.Count-(i*nSize));

        Debug.Log ("Index: "+i.ToString()+", Size: "+subLocat.Count.ToString());
        list.Add (subLocat);
    }

    return list;
}

If I use the function on a list of size 144 then the output is:

Index: 4, Size: 120
Index: 3, Size: 114
Index: 2, Size: 114
Index: 1, Size: 114
Index: 0, Size: 114

Answer 1

I would suggest to use this extension method to chunk the source list to the sub-lists by specified chunk size:

/// <summary>
/// Helper methods for the lists.
/// </summary>
public static class ListExtensions
{
    public static List<List<T>> ChunkBy<T>(this List<T> source, int chunkSize) 
    {
        return source
            .Select((x, i) => new { Index = i, Value = x })
            .GroupBy(x => x.Index / chunkSize)
            .Select(x => x.Select(v => v.Value).ToList())
            .ToList();
    }
}

For example, if you chunk the list of 18 items by 5 items per chunk, it gives you the list of 4 sub-lists with the following items inside: 5-5-5-3.

NOTE: at the upcoming improvements to LINQ in .NET 6 chunking will come out of the box like this:

const int PAGE_SIZE = 5;

IEnumerable<Movie[]> chunks = movies.Chunk(PAGE_SIZE);