<p>I'd like to do something like this:</p>

<pre><code>Dim Foo as String = "a,b,c,d,e"
Dim Boo as List(of String) = Foo.Split(","c)
</code></pre>

<p>Of course <code>Foo.Split</code> returns a one-dimensional array of <code>String</code>, not a generic <code>List</code>. Is there a way to do this without iterating through the array to turn it into a generic <code>List</code>?</p>

If you use Linq, you can use the ToList() extension method
```
```
Dim strings As List<string> = string_variable.Split().ToList<string>();
```
```