How to use LINQ Distinct() with multiple fields

The Distinct() guarantees that there are no duplicates pair (CategoryId, CategoryName).

- exactly that

Anonymous types 'magically' implement Equals and GetHashcode

I assume another error somewhere. Case sensitivity? Mutable classes? Non-comparable fields?

Use the Key keyword in your select will work, like below.

product.Select(m => new {Key m.CategoryId, Key m.CategoryName}).Distinct();

I realize this is bringing up an old thread but figured it might help some people. I generally code in VB.NET when working with .NET so Key may translate differently into C#.

This is my solution, it supports keySelectors of different types:

public static IEnumerable<TSource> DistinctBy<TSource>(this IEnumerable<TSource> source, params Func<TSource, object>[] keySelectors)
{
    // initialize the table
    var seenKeysTable = keySelectors.ToDictionary(x => x, x => new HashSet<object>());

    // loop through each element in source
    foreach (var element in source)
    {
        // initialize the flag to true
        var flag = true;

        // loop through each keySelector a
        foreach (var (keySelector, hashSet) in seenKeysTable)
        {                    
            // if all conditions are true
            flag = flag && hashSet.Add(keySelector(element));
        }

        // if no duplicate key was added to table, then yield the list element
        if (flag)
        {
            yield return element;
        }
    }
}

To use it:

list.DistinctBy(d => d.CategoryId, d => d.CategoryName)

I assume that you use distinct like a method call on a list. You need to use the result of the query as datasource for your DropDownList, for example by materializing it via ToList.

var distinctCategories = product
                        .Select(m => new {m.CategoryId, m.CategoryName})
                        .Distinct()
                        .ToList();
DropDownList1.DataSource     = distinctCategories;
DropDownList1.DataTextField  = "CategoryName";
DropDownList1.DataValueField = "CategoryId";

Another way if you need the real objects instead of the anonymous type with only few properties is to use GroupBy with an anonymous type:

List<Product> distinctProductList = product
    .GroupBy(m => new {m.CategoryId, m.CategoryName})
    .Select(group => group.First())  // instead of First you can also apply your logic here what you want to take, for example an OrderBy
    .ToList();

A third option is to use MoreLinq's DistinctBy.