Interview Question Difference between SPList.AllItems.GetItem() or SPLIst.GetItem();

Question

I got this interview question today, any idea?

Difference between SPList.AllItems.GetItem() or SPLIst.GetItem();

Answer 1

The SPList class does not have an AllItems property. Neither does it have a GetItem method. So, there is no difference between these two, they are both invalid.

So, the following code:

        SPList list = SPContext.Current.List;

        list.AllItems;
        list.GetItem();

Would generate the following errors:

'Microsoft.SharePoint.SPList' does not contain a definition for 'AllItems' and no extension method 'AllItems' accepting a first argument of type 'Microsoft.SharePoint.SPList' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

'Microsoft.SharePoint.SPList' does not contain a definition for 'GetItem' and no extension method 'GetItem' accepting a first argument of type 'Microsoft.SharePoint.SPList' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

Additionally, all three references Google has to "SPList.AllItems" point to this question (way to go SE SEO!).

I think the possibilities are:

• you misheard the question?
• the interviewer wanted to trip you up by asking ridiculous details. In a real situation confronted with two similar methods/attributes you could just Google it to see which is appropriate (MS documentation is amazing).

Answer 2

Just some small points, in case it was just a mistake and to clarify for anyone new to SharePoint reading this...

SPList.GetItems (note the 's') is the main way you would query data, using one of the four available overloads:

SPList mylist = myWeb.Lists["myList"];
SPListItemCollection Result;

Result = mylist.GetItems("LinkTitle", "AssignedTo", "DueDate", "Status");

// Note that query is an SPQuery that must be defined above
Result = mylist.GetItems(query);

SPView view = mylist.Views["My View"];
Result = mylist.GetItems(view);

Result = mylist.GetItems(query, "My View");

AllItems on the other hand is 100% invalid. You would use SPList.Items to get the SPListItemCollection of all items in the list.