无需额外包装的解决方案:

var min = lst.OrderBy(i => i.StartDate).FirstOrDefault();
var max = lst.OrderBy(i => i.StartDate).LastOrDefault();

你也可以把它包装成扩展:

public static class LinqExtensions
{
    public static T MinBy<T, TProp>(this IEnumerable<T> source, Func<T, TProp> propSelector)
    {
        return source.OrderBy(propSelector).FirstOrDefault();
    }

    public static T MaxBy<T, TProp>(this IEnumerable<T> source, Func<T, TProp> propSelector)
    {
        return source.OrderBy(propSelector).LastOrDefault();
    }
}

在这种情况下:

var min = lst.MinBy(i => i.StartDate);
var max = lst.MaxBy(i => i.StartDate);

顺便说一下……O(n²)不是最佳解。保罗·贝茨给出的解决方案比我的。但我仍然是LINQ解决方案，它比这里的其他解决方案更简单，更简短。

不幸的是，没有内置的方法来做到这一点，但它很容易为自己实现。以下是它的核心内容:

public static TSource MinBy<TSource, TKey>(this IEnumerable<TSource> source,
    Func<TSource, TKey> selector)
{
    return source.MinBy(selector, null);
}

public static TSource MinBy<TSource, TKey>(this IEnumerable<TSource> source,
    Func<TSource, TKey> selector, IComparer<TKey> comparer)
{
    if (source == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("source");
    if (selector == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("selector");
    comparer ??= Comparer<TKey>.Default;

    using (var sourceIterator = source.GetEnumerator())
    {
        if (!sourceIterator.MoveNext())
        {
            throw new InvalidOperationException("Sequence contains no elements");
        }
        var min = sourceIterator.Current;
        var minKey = selector(min);
        while (sourceIterator.MoveNext())
        {
            var candidate = sourceIterator.Current;
            var candidateProjected = selector(candidate);
            if (comparer.Compare(candidateProjected, minKey) < 0)
            {
                min = candidate;
                minKey = candidateProjected;
            }
        }
        return min;
    }
}

使用示例:

var firstBorn = People.MinBy(p => p.DateOfBirth ?? DateTime.MaxValue);

请注意，如果序列为空，将抛出异常，如果有多个元素，则返回第一个具有最小值的元素。

或者，你也可以在MinBy.cs中使用MoreLINQ中的实现。(当然，有一个相应的MaxBy。)

通过包管理器控制台安装:

PM>安装包morelinq

People.Aggregate((curMin, x) => (curMin == null || (x.DateOfBirth ?? DateTime.MaxValue) <
    curMin.DateOfBirth ? x : curMin))

我自己也在寻找类似的东西，最好不使用库或对整个列表进行排序。我的解决方案与问题本身相似，只是简化了一点。

var min = People.Min(p => p.DateOfBirth);
var firstBorn = People.FirstOrDefault(p => p.DateOfBirth == min);

public class Foo {
    public int bar;
    public int stuff;
};

void Main()
{
    List<Foo> fooList = new List<Foo>(){
    new Foo(){bar=1,stuff=2},
    new Foo(){bar=3,stuff=4},
    new Foo(){bar=2,stuff=3}};

    Foo result = fooList.Aggregate((u,v) => u.bar < v.bar ? u: v);
    result.Dump();
}

另一种实现，可以使用可空的选择器键，如果没有找到合适的元素，则对于引用类型集合返回null。 例如，这对处理数据库结果很有帮助。

  public static class IEnumerableExtensions
  {
    /// <summary>
    /// Returns the element with the maximum value of a selector function.
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="TSource">The type of the elements of source.</typeparam>
    /// <typeparam name="TKey">The type of the key returned by keySelector.</typeparam>
    /// <param name="source">An IEnumerable collection values to determine the element with the maximum value of.</param>
    /// <param name="keySelector">A function to extract the key for each element.</param>
    /// <exception cref="System.ArgumentNullException">source or keySelector is null.</exception>
    /// <exception cref="System.InvalidOperationException">source contains no elements.</exception>
    /// <returns>The element in source with the maximum value of a selector function.</returns>
    public static TSource MaxBy<TSource, TKey>(this IEnumerable<TSource> source, Func<TSource, TKey> keySelector) => MaxOrMinBy(source, keySelector, 1);

    /// <summary>
    /// Returns the element with the minimum value of a selector function.
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="TSource">The type of the elements of source.</typeparam>
    /// <typeparam name="TKey">The type of the key returned by keySelector.</typeparam>
    /// <param name="source">An IEnumerable collection values to determine the element with the minimum value of.</param>
    /// <param name="keySelector">A function to extract the key for each element.</param>
    /// <exception cref="System.ArgumentNullException">source or keySelector is null.</exception>
    /// <exception cref="System.InvalidOperationException">source contains no elements.</exception>
    /// <returns>The element in source with the minimum value of a selector function.</returns>
    public static TSource MinBy<TSource, TKey>(this IEnumerable<TSource> source, Func<TSource, TKey> keySelector) => MaxOrMinBy(source, keySelector, -1);


    private static TSource MaxOrMinBy<TSource, TKey>
      (IEnumerable<TSource> source, Func<TSource, TKey> keySelector, int sign)
    {
      if (source == null) throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(source));
      if (keySelector == null) throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(keySelector));
      Comparer<TKey> comparer = Comparer<TKey>.Default;
      TKey value = default(TKey);
      TSource result = default(TSource);

      bool hasValue = false;

      foreach (TSource element in source)
      {
        TKey x = keySelector(element);
        if (x != null)
        {
          if (!hasValue)
          {
            value = x;
            result = element;
            hasValue = true;
          }
          else if (sign * comparer.Compare(x, value) > 0)
          {
            value = x;
            result = element;
          }
        }
      }

      if ((result != null) && !hasValue)
        throw new InvalidOperationException("The source sequence is empty");

      return result;
    }
  }

例子:

public class A
{
  public int? a;
  public A(int? a) { this.a = a; }
}

var b = a.MinBy(x => x.a);
var c = a.MaxBy(x => x.a);