Linq query for Where on the Joined table without needing join - c#

Trying to get a linq query (or lambda syntax) for the following SQL which Selects all "Data" which in the joining table have an Attribute equal to "blob".
EXCEPT: without explictly using the Join, but the
select data.*
from data
join settings on data.DataID = settings.DataID
where settings.Attribute = 'blob'
Explicitly defining the join
from d in dbcontext.Data
join s in dbcontext.Settings on d.DataID equals s.DataID
where s.Attribute == "blob"
select d
but is there a way to use the context dbcontext.Data.Settings
like the following?
from d in dbcontext.Data
where d.Settings.Attribute == "blob"
select d
Settings is a collection Type, so things like .Contains, and .Where come to mind.
using .Contains, my understanding is i would need to pass in an object type
where d.Settings.Contains(new Settings(d.DataID, "blob", null))
but i dont care about the null (Value) matching, just column Settings
some table structures
Data
DataID
Name
Settings
DataID
Attribute
Value

As I understand, you have Settings collection navigation property, so instead of explicit join you could simply use it ("navigate"):
from d in dbcontext.Data
from s in d.Settings
where s.Attribute == "blob"
select d
Alternatively you could use Any extension method which in this case is more appropriate than Contains (although Contains can also be used, but needs to be combined with Select):
dbcontext.Data.Where(d => d.Settings.Any(s => s.Attribute == "blob"))
For completeness, here is the Contains version:
dbcontext.Data.Where(d => d.Settings.Select(s => s.Attribute).Contains("blob"))

If I understand your question correctly, you want to create a LINQ that will grab any DataID that has an attribute of of "Blah" that is stored in another table.
If so this may work.
var dataIDs = Setting.Where(entry => entry.Attribute == "Blah")
.Select(entry => entry.DataID); // gets all DataIDs that match the attribute
var data = Data.Where(entry => entry.DataID in dataIDs); // gets data info based on DataIDs.
It should work, but what you should do instead is do an left join somewhat like
select a.*
from data a
left join settings b
on a.DataID = b.DataID
where b.Attribute = 'blob'
but in LINQ. This query would allow you to fetch all the data for DataIDs that match attribute 'blob. I haven't done it in LINQ so if someone more familiar with left joins with linq could respond that might work better

Related

Get properties from second (Right) joined entity with Group by

please I'm working on a ASP.NET MVC project with Entity Framework.
I try to write a Linq Query that give me some data, this Query will join two entities and grouping by data, so the issue is when I try to get the properties of second joined entity I don't see them in Intellisense, I need these properties to select them.
What I try :
var R = (from N in SCHOOL_DB_Context.Con.NT_CTR join S in SCHOOL_DB_Context.Con.STGs on N.STG_nt equals S.CD_STG where N.CTR_nt==CTR group N by N.STG_nt into G select new NT_CTR_Anal { /*Here where I want to select some properties from second entity*/ } )
So please any help about this issue ?
Take a look at tis fragment:
group N by N.STG_nt into G
The part between by and into is the key(s), and similar to SQL there you have access to all aliases (variables) from from and join clauses. The name after into is LINQ specific and represents the alias (variable) for accessing the GroupBy result. But what is between group and 'by'? There is no SQL equivalent.
Well, the result of GroupBy is of type IGrouping<TKey, TElement>, which has property TKey Key and also is IEnumerable<TElement>. The TKey is comong from the expression between by and into, while TElement (which is what you can access through into variable is coming from the expression between group and by.
In your sample you've put N there, that`s why you have access only to its properties.
In order to have access to other properties, you would use the typical LINQ construct for "composite" things, which is anonymous type projection, e.g.
var R = (
from N in SCHOOL_DB_Context.Con.NT_CTR
join S in SCHOOL_DB_Context.Con.STGs on N.STG_nt equals S.CD_STG
where N.CTR_nt == CTR
group new { N, S } by N.STG_nt into G
select new NT_CTR_Anal
{
G.Key, // N.STG_nt
SomeNPropSum = G.Sum(e => e.N.SomeNProp),
SomeSPropSum = G.Sum(e => e.S.SomeSProp),
};
As you can see, now you have access to both N and S properties inside grouping aggregate methods.

C# Linq Group by Object

I have an issue of using group by in LINQ to SQL statement.
The cod I have is
var combinedItems = (from article in articles
join author in authors
on article.AuthorId equals author.Id into tempAuthors
from tempAuthor in tempAuthors.DefaultIfEmpty()
select new { article , author = tempAuthor});
var groups1 = (from combinedItem in combinedItems
group combinedItem by combinedItem.article into g
select g.Key).ToList();
var groups2 = (from combinedItem in combinedItems
group combinedItem by combinedItem.article.Id into g
select g.Key).ToList();
I tried to group in two different ways. The first way, I group by an object and the second way I just group by a field in one of the objects.
When I run groups1, I got an error saying need to evaluate in client side, while when I use groups2, it works all good. Can I ask what could be wrong? If I want to group by object, is there any way to do it?
In case you want to group by object, as you've not overridden Equals and GetHashCode() in your Article class or implemented IEqualityComparer<Article> you're just getting the default comparison, which checks if the references are equal. So what you need is something like this:
class GroupItemComparer : IEqualityComparer<Article>
{
public bool Equals(Article x, Article y)
{
return x.Id == y.Id &&
x.Name == y.Name;
}
public int GetHashCode(Article obj)
{
return obj.Id.GetHashCode() ^
obj.Name.GetHashCode();
}
}
And then you need to change your query to lambda expression:
var groups1 = combinedItems.GroupBy(c => c.article , new GroupItemComparer())
.Select(c => c.Key).ToList();
In case you got any exception regarding translation your method to SQL, you can use AsEnumerable or ToList methods before your GroupBy method, with this methods after data is loaded, any further operation is performed using Linq to Objects, on the data already in memory.
As others have pointed out, the GroupBy is using reference equality by default, and you could get around it by specifying one or more properties to group by. But why is that an error?
The whole point of the query is to translate your Linq query into SQL. Since object reference equality on the client can't be easily translated to SQL, the translator doesn't support it and gives you an error.
When you provide one or more properties to group by, the provider can translate that to SQL (e.g. GROUP BY article.Id), and thus the second method works without error.

Build Where Clause (not sure PredicateBuilder will work for me)

I am trying to query a database using LINQ. I am joining TableA with TableB with TableC.
I have zero to many 'keywords' (don't know how many at design time) that I would like to look for within (LIKE '%%') several fields that are spread across the three tables.
Assuming three (3) keywords are entered into my search box:
In T-SQL I would have this -
SELECT tbl0.FieldA, tbl0.FieldB, tbl1.FieldC, tbl1.FieldD, tbl2.FieldE, tbl2.FieldF
FROM tbl0
JOIN tbl1 ON tbl0.KeyField = tbl1.KeyField
JOIN tbl2 ON tbl1.KeyField = tbl2.KeyField
WHERE (tbl0.FieldA LIKE '%{keyword1}%' OR tbl1.FieldC LIKE '%{keyword1}%' OR tbl2.FieldE LIKE '%{keyword1}%' OR tbl0.FieldA LIKE '%{keyword2}%' OR tbl1.FieldC LIKE '%{keyword2}%' OR tbl2.FieldE LIKE '%{keyword2}%' OR tbl0.FieldA LIKE '%{keyword3}%' OR tbl1.FieldC LIKE '%{keyword3}%' OR tbl2.FieldE LIKE '%{keyword3}%')
Question is -- How do I 'dynamically' build this WHERE clause in LINQ?
NOTE #1 -- I do not (for reasons outside the scope of this question) want to create a VIEW across the three tables
NOTE #2 -- Because I am joining in this way (and I am still new to LINQ) I don't see how I can use the PredicateBuilder because I am not sure what TYPE (T) to pass into it?
NOTE #3 -- If it matters ... I am ultimately planning to return a strongly typed list of (custom) objects to be displayed in a GridView.
EDIT - 8/17/2012 - 5:15 PM EDT
The comment below is correct.
"The code the OP is looking for is where any one of the fields contains any one of the keywords."
Thanks everyone!
Here's a solution not using the PredicateBuilder. Just get all the items containing the first keyword and merge it with all the items containing the second keyword and so on. Not knowing anything about the context of the problem I can't tell if this will be efficient or not.
var query = from t0 in db.Table0
join t1 in db.Table1 on t0.KeyField equals t1.KeyField
join t2 in db.Table2 on t1.KeyField equals t2.KeyField
select new
{
t0.FieldA, t0.FieldB,
t1.FieldC, t1.FieldD,
t2.FieldE, t2.FieldF
};
string keyword = keywordsList[0];
var result = query.Where(x => x.FieldA.Contains(keyword) ||
x.FieldC.Contains(keyword) ||
x.FieldE.Contains(keyword));
for (int i = 1; i < keywordsList.Length; i++)
{
string tempkey = keywordsList[i];
result = result.Union(query.Where(x => x.FieldA.Contains(tempkey) ||
x.FieldC.Contains(tempkey) ||
x.FieldE.Contains(tempkey)));
}
result = result.Distinct();

Databinding to LINQ query result in Silverlight

I am retrieving simple LINQ query, but I am joining with two table and binding data with ListBox.
I am not able to properly show the item into the ListBox.
once I remove new item and select only keyword using it will work properly, but I want to join two table with select new key word it wil not allow to bind data with ListBox.
my code is like.
This will not allow to bind with ListBox.
var newPeople = (from p in clsGeneral.db.Table<SmartFXAttribes>()
join q in clsGeneral.db.Table<CategoryAttribes>() on p.catId equals q.ID
where p.catId == ((SmartFX.CategoryAttribes)((ComboBox)cmbPrintSize).SelectedValue).ID
select new
{
p.ID,
p.ImageHeight,
p.Imageoutline,
p.ImageUnit,
p.ImageWidth,
p.NoofPic,
p.TextboxCaption,
p.CanvasPixelHeight,
p.CanvasPixelWidth,
p.CanvasUnit,
p.catId,
q.FileName
}).ToList();
lstThumbnail.ItemsSource = newPeople;
This code will work fine.
var newPeople =
(from p in clsGeneral.db.Table<SmartFXAttribes>()
join q in clsGeneral.db.Table<CategoryAttribes>() on p.catId equals q.ID
where p.catId == ((SmartFX.CategoryAttribes)((ComboBox)cmbPrintSize).SelectedValue).ID
select p).ToList();
lstThumbnail.ItemsSource = newPeople;
Thanks!
The problem is that the first query creates an anonymous-typed object, but Silverlight cannot do data binding against an anonymous-typed object (anonymous types are internal and Silverlight's reflection capabilities do not allow accessing internal types from other assemblies). Your second query returns objects of a named type so it works just fine.
The best solution to this is to declare a public type containing public properties for everything you want to return from your first query and return an instance of that instead.
You can work around it with this hack, though.

Trying to create some dynamic linq

I'm trying to create a linq query based on some dynamic/optional arguments passed into a method.
User [Table] -> zero to many -> Vehicles [Table]
User [Table] -> zero to many -> Pets
So we want all users (including any vechile and/or pet info). Optional filters are
Vehicle numberplate
Pet name
Because the vehicle and pet tables are zero-to-many, i usually have outer joins between the user table and the vehicle|pet table.
To speed up the query, i was trying to create the dynamic linq and if we have an optional argument provided, redfine the outer join to an inner join.
(The context diagram will have the two tables linked as an outer join by default.)
Can this be done?
I'm also not sure if this SO post can help me, either.
I think you are heading in the wrong direction. You can easily use the fact that LINQ queries are composable here.
First, you would always use the outer join, and get all users with the appropriate vehicles and pets:
// Get all the users.
IQueryable<User> users = dbContext.Users;
Then you would add the filters if necessary:
// If a filter on the pet name is required, filter.
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(petNameFilter))
{
// Filter on pet name.
users = users.Where(u => u.Pets.Where(
p => p.Name == petNameFilter).Any());
}
// Add a filter on the license plate number.
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(licensePlateFilter))
{
// Filter on the license plate.
users = users.Where(
u => u.Cars.Where(c => c.LicensePlace == licensePlateFilter).Any());
}
Note that this will not filter out the pets or cars that don't meet the filter, as it is simply looking for the users that have pets with that name, or cars with that plate.
If you are trying to change tables or joins of a LINQ to SQL query at runtime you need to do that with reflection. LINQ expressions are not special; same as working with any other object call - you can change the value of properties and variables at runtime, but choosing which properties to change or which methods to call requires reflecting.
I would add to that by pointing out dynamically creating LINQ expressions via reflection is probably a little silly for most (all?) cases, since under the hood the expression is essentially reflected back into SQL statements. Might as well write the SQL yourself if you are doing it on-the-fly. The point of LINQ is to abstract the data source from the developer, not the end-user.
This is how I do what you are asking...
var results = u from dc.Users
join veh from dc.vehicles on u.userId equals v.userId into vtemp from v in vtemp.DefaultIfEmpty()
join pet from dc.pets on u.userId equals p.userId into ptemp from p in ptemp.DefaultItEmpty()
select new { user = u, vehicle = v, pet = p };
if ( !string.IsNullOrEmpty(petName) )
{
results = results.Where(r => r.pet.PetName == petName);
}
if ( !string.IsNullOrEmpty(licNum) )
{
results = results.Where(r => r.vehicle.LicNum == licNum);
}

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