.net 3.5 - System.Array. does not contain a definition for "ToList"

Question

I'm getting the above error on the ToList() line of the code below

if (emailReplyTo != null)
{
  System.Collections.Generic.List<String> replyto
    = emailReplyTo
    // Strip uneccessary spaces
    .Replace(", ", ",")
    .Split(',')
    .ToList();

  request.WithReplyToAddresses(emailReplyTo);
}

I have included using System.Collections; at the top of my file. The target framework is 3.5, so why is this causing an error?

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5538377/system-array-does-not-contain-a-definition-for-tolist

Answer 1

The ToList method you are looking for is an extension method. Try adding this using directive to the top of your file:

using System.Linq;

By adding this using directive you are indicating to the compiler that any extension methods in that namespace should be imported. It's kind of a shame that there isn't more help from Visual Studio around importing extension methods (ReSharper does this rather nicely).