Linq Contains without a variable name

I have this block of code which works

str1 = ["Element 1", "Element 2", "Element 3", "Element 4", "Element 5"];
var mystring = "Element 1";
bool found = str1.Contains(mystring);

I’d like to do this without having to use the variable str1 because I am working inside of a third-party tool for writing expressions that doesn’t allow creating variables and I need to hard code a list of elements. Note:mystring will be replaced by an input from the tool itself.

So something like this, but that actually works

["Element 1", "Element 2", "Element 3", "Element 4", "Element 5"].Contains(mystring);

Can this be done?

>Solution :

The most compact syntax to do that would be:

(new [] {"Element 1", "Element 2", "Element 3", "Element 4", "Element 5"}).Contains(mystring);

Whether your third-party tool would allow it is another question. Unfortunately there’s not yet a syntax in C# for collection "constants" like Python and other languages.