How to remove elements from a generic list while iterating over it?

Question

I am looking for a better pattern for working with a list of elements which each need processed and then depending on the outcome are removed from

Answer 1

My approach is that I first create a list of indices, which should get deleted. Afterwards I loop over the indices and remove the items from the initial list. This looks like this:

var messageList = ...;
// Restrict your list to certain criteria
var customMessageList = messageList.FindAll(m => m.UserId == someId);

if (customMessageList != null && customMessageList.Count > 0)
{
    // Create list with positions in origin list
    List positionList = new List();
    foreach (var message in customMessageList)
    {
        var position = messageList.FindIndex(m => m.MessageId == message.MessageId);
        if (position != -1)
            positionList.Add(position);
    }
    // To be able to remove the items in the origin list, we do it backwards
    // so that the order of indices stays the same
    positionList = positionList.OrderByDescending(p => p).ToList();
    foreach (var position in positionList)
    {
        messageList.RemoveAt(position);
    }
}