Check whether list is null or not in CSOM?

Question

I have developed a code in CSOM(Client Side Object Module) using c# where before performing any operation on the list I want to check whether the list is null or not? In SSOM we can check that by

.TryGetList() method

how I can achieve the same in CSOM.

if(list!= null){....} is not working as it always goes into the if condition and throws the error in context.Update()

Is there any other way to achieve this without putting the

if(list!= null){....} into try-catch.

Answer 1

Nope, it doesn't exist in native CSOM, but the PnP Core library has this extension method:

 if (ctx.Web.ListExists("My List")){
            //do something
 }

https://github.com/SharePoint/PnP-Sites-Core

Answer 2

You can check the list collection count to see if the list exists in the site as shown below:

           ListCollection listCollection = clientContext.Web.Lists; 
           clientContext.Load(listCollection, lists => lists.Include(list => list.Title).Where(list => list.Title == "ListName"));

            clientContext.ExecuteQuery();

            if (listCollection.Count > 0)
            {
                Response.Write("List  exists...");
            }
            else
            {
                Response.Write("List does not exist");
            }