Cannot apply indexing with [] to an expression of type 'System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<>

Question

Is there any specific reason why indexing is not allowed in IEnumerable.

I found a workaround for the problem I had, but just curious to know why it does not allow i

Answer 1

The []-operator is resolved to the access property this[sometype index], with implementation depending upon the Element-Collection.

An Enumerable-Interface declares a blueprint of what a Collection should look like in the first place.

Take this example to demonstrate the usefulness of clean Interface separation:

var ienu = "13;37".Split(';').Select(int.Parse);
//provides an WhereSelectArrayIterator
var inta = "13;37".Split(';').Select(int.Parse).ToArray()[0];
//>13
//inta.GetType(): System.Int32

Also look at the syntax of the []-operator:

  //example
public class SomeCollection{
public SomeCollection(){}

 private bool[] bools;

  public bool this[int index] {
     get {
        if ( index < 0 || index >= bools.Length ){
           //... Out of range index Exception
        }
        return bools[index];
     }
     set {
        bools[index] = value;
     }
  }
//...
}