How to return an anonymous type from a method

Current .NET lore would have you believe you can’t return an anonymous type from a method but Tomas confirms it is possible by casting and cites the C# 3.0 spec:

Within the same program, two anonymous object initializers that specify a sequence of properties of the same names and types in the same order will produce instances of the same anonymous type.

Tomas also qualifies his interesting post with a request to let him know if a good reason can be found for using this technique!

In my own work I recently wanted to call a method that returns what I would ultimately implement as a data transfer object: a strongly-typed collection of structured, related data. I considered out parameters and collections but neither option really struck my fancy; a DTO would likely be the preferred option at the expense of introducing another class, maintenance overheads, etc.

In the hunt for a better, modern solution, the concept of returning an anonymous type appealed—apart from the problems anonymity introduces! While I understand how .NET constructs anonymous types and reuses those that identical, the one major problem I see with Tomas’ solution is the requirement that both “sender” and “receiver” not only know about the so-called anonymous type but actually define it in two places. This just seems like more overhead to me so I abandoned this approach before long.