# LINQ gems: Zip

I'm always fascinated by how simple yet helpful LINQ queries are.

Take for example the [Enumerable.Zip()](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.linq.enumerable.zip) method. It's simple, yet very useful in case you need to **combine two sequences of data**. 

Here's a partial example where Zip() is used to combine a sequence of original text resources with their translations (produced for example by the [Google Cloud Translation API](https://cloud.google.com/translate/docs)):

```c#
public IEnumerable<(ResourceText text, string translation)> 
    TranslateResourceTexts(IEnumerable<ResourceText> resourceTexts)
{
    // Grab just the strings to translate
    IEnumerable<string> strings = resourceTexts.Select(t => t.Text);

    // Translate the strings (call Google Translate V3 API)
    IEnumerable<string> translatedStrings = TranslateStrings(strings);

    // Combine the two sequences, producing an enumerable of tuples 
    // containing both the original resource text and its translation
    return resourceTexts.Zip(translatedStrings, (text, translation) 
                             => (text, translation));
}
```

Simple and easily readable. 

As with most of the LINQ functions, I could of course accomplish the same with a *for* or *for each* loop and a few extra lines of code. However, in most cases, I consider the use of LINQ syntax a cleaner alternative.

Final notes:

- The Zip() method can only be called using the [LINQ method syntax](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/programming-guide/concepts/linq/query-syntax-and-method-syntax-in-linq), there's no query syntax option for it.
- It is available starting with .NET Framework 4.0.

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If you find this post interesting, be sure to check out my other posts in the [LINQ gems series](https://mydevtricks.com/series/linq-gems).