Converting an advanced query from SQL to LINQ - c#

Still getting used to LINQ syntax, and have come across this query that I need to create in LINQ - but not exactly sure how.
SELECT *,
(SELECT 1 FROM Applications
WHERE Applications.jID = Jobs.ID
AND Applications.uID = #uID) AS Applied
FROM [Jobs]
Playing in LinqPad, but the interface isn't really helping (at least with what I can see).

Based on the link provided by Paul Sasik, and his advice that you're after a LEFT OUTER JOIN, this query should meet your requirements;
var query = from job in jobs
join app in applications on job.ID equals app.jID into grouped
from subApp in grouped.DefaultIfEmpty()
select new { Job = job, Applied = (subApp != null) };
EDIT:
To filter by user, update the query as follows;
var query = from job in jobs
join app in
(
from userApp in applications where userApp.uID == uID select userApp
) on job.ID equals app.jID into grouped
from subApp in grouped.DefaultIfEmpty()
select new { Job = job, Applied = (subApp != null) };
I personally would have reverted to just using the .Where() method directly at this point, but just thought I'd keep everything consistent and continue using the query syntax.

var jobs = from j in this.db.Jobs
where !j.Applications.Any(x => x.UserId == currentUserId)
select j;

I recommend checking out the tool Linqer -- which converts SQL to Linq code. It's not free but there is a 10 day trial.

Related

Improving LINQ query for many-to-many relation

I have a database with the following schema:
Now, I'm trying to pull all landingpages for a domain and sort those by the first UrlFilter's FilterType that matches a certain group. This is the LINQ I've come up with so far:
var baseQuery = DbSet.AsNoTracking()
.Where(e => EF.Functions.Contains(EF.Property<string>(e, "Url"), $"\"{searchTerm}*\""))
.Where(e => e.DomainLandingPages.Select(lp => lp.DomainId).Contains(domainId));
var count = baseQuery.Count();
var page = baseQuery
.Select(e => new
{
LandingPage = e,
UrlFilter = e.LandingPageUrlFilters.FirstOrDefault(f => f.UrlFilter.GroupId == groupId)
})
.Select(e => new
{
e.LandingPage,
FilterType = e.UrlFilter == null ? UrlFilterType.NotCovered : e.UrlFilter.UrlFilter.UrlFilterType
})
.OrderBy(e => e.FilterType)
.Skip(10).Take(75).ToList();
Now, while this technically works, it's quite slow with execution times ranging from 10-30 seconds, which is not good enough for the use case. The LINQ is translated to the following SQL:
SELECT [l1].[Id], [l1].[LastUpdated], [l1].[Url], CASE
WHEN (
SELECT TOP(1) [l].[LandingPageId]
FROM [LandingPageUrlFilters] AS [l]
INNER JOIN [UrlFilters] AS [u] ON [l].[UrlFilterId] = [u].[Id]
WHERE ([l1].[Id] = [l].[LandingPageId]) AND ([u].[GroupId] = #__groupId_3)) IS NULL THEN 4
ELSE (
SELECT TOP(1) [u0].[UrlFilterType]
FROM [LandingPageUrlFilters] AS [l0]
INNER JOIN [UrlFilters] AS [u0] ON [l0].[UrlFilterId] = [u0].[Id]
WHERE ([l1].[Id] = [l0].[LandingPageId]) AND ([u0].[GroupId] = #__groupId_3))
END AS [FilterType]
FROM [LandingPages] AS [l1]
WHERE CONTAINS([l1].[Url], #__Format_1) AND #__domainId_2 IN (
SELECT [d].[DomainId]
FROM [DomainLandingPages] AS [d]
WHERE [l1].[Id] = [d].[LandingPageId]
)
ORDER BY CASE
WHEN (
SELECT TOP(1) [l2].[LandingPageId]
FROM [LandingPageUrlFilters] AS [l2]
INNER JOIN [UrlFilters] AS [u1] ON [l2].[UrlFilterId] = [u1].[Id]
WHERE ([l1].[Id] = [l2].[LandingPageId]) AND ([u1].[GroupId] = #__groupId_3)) IS NULL THEN 4
ELSE (
SELECT TOP(1) [u2].[UrlFilterType]
FROM [LandingPageUrlFilters] AS [l3]
INNER JOIN [UrlFilters] AS [u2] ON [l3].[UrlFilterId] = [u2].[Id]
WHERE ([l1].[Id] = [l3].[LandingPageId]) AND ([u2].[GroupId] = #__groupId_3))
END
OFFSET #__p_4 ROWS FETCH NEXT #__p_5 ROWS ONLY
Now my question is, how can I improve the execution time of this? Either by SQL or LINQ
EDIT: So I've been tinkering with some raw SQL and this is what I've come up with:
with matched_urls as (
select l.id, min(f.urlfiltertype) as Filter
from landingpages l
join landingpageurlfilters lpf on lpf.landingpageid = l.id
join urlfilters f on lpf.urlfilterid = f.id
where f.groupid = #groupId
and contains(Url, '"barz*"')
group by l.id
) select l.id, 5 as Filter
from landingpages l
where #domainId in (
select domainid
from domainlandingpages dlp
where l.id = dlp.landingpageid
) and l.id not in (select id from matched_urls ) and contains(Url, '"barz*"')
union select * from matched_urls
order by Filter
offset 10 rows fetch next 30 rows only
This performs somewhat okay, cutting the execution time down to ~5 seconds. As this is to be used for a table search I would however like to get it down even further. Is there any way to improve this SQL?
You're right to have a look at the generated SQL. In general, I would advise to learn SQL, write a performing SQL query and work your way back (either use a stored procedure or raw SQL, or design your LINQ query with that same philosophy.
I suspect this will be better (not tested):
var page = (
from e in baseQuery
let urlFilter = e.LandingPageUrlFilters.OrderBy(f => f.UrlFilterType).FirstOrDefault(f => f.UrlFilter.GroupId == groupId)
let filterType = urlFilter == null ? UrlFilterType.NotCovered : e.UrlFilter.UrlFilter.UrlFilterType
select new
{
LandingPage = e,
FilterType = filterType
}
).Skip(10).Take(75).ToList();
one of the way to improve the execution time is see execution plan in SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio).
After look on the execution plan you can design some indexes, or if you have no experiences with this, you can see if SSMS recommends some indexes.
Next try to create the indexes and execute the query again and see if execution time was improved.
Note: this is only one of many possible ways to improve execution time...

Entity Framework LINQ to Entities Join Query Timeout

I am executing the following LINQ to Entities query but it is stuck and does not return response until timeout. I executed the same query on SQL Server and it return 92000 in 3 sec.
var query = (from r in WinCtx.PartsRoutings
join s in WinCtx.Tab_Processes on r.ProcessName equals s.ProcessName
join p in WinCtx.Tab_Parts on r.CustPartNum equals p.CustPartNum
select new { r}).ToList();
SQL Generated:
SELECT [ I omitted columns]
FROM [dbo].[PartsRouting] AS [Extent1]
INNER JOIN [dbo].[Tab_Processes] AS [Extent2] ON ([Extent1].[ProcessName] = [Extent2].[ProcessName]) OR (([Extent1].[ProcessName] IS NULL) AND ([Extent2].[ProcessName] IS NULL))
INNER JOIN [dbo].[Tab_Parts] AS [Extent3] ON ([Extent1].[CustPartNum] = [Extent3].[CustPartNum]) OR (([Extent1].[CustPartNum] IS NULL) AND ([Extent3].[CustPartNum] IS NULL))
PartsRouting Table has 100,000+ records, Parts = 15000+, Processes = 200.
I tried too many things found online but nothing worked for me as to how I can achieve the result with same performance of SQL.
Based on the comments, looks like the issue is caused by the additional OR with IS NULL conditions in joins generated by the EF SQL translator. They were added in EF in order to emulate the C# == operator semantics which are different from SQL = for NULL values.
You can start by turning that EF behavior off through UseDatabaseNullSemantics property (it's false by default):
WinCtx.Configuration.UseDatabaseNullSemantics = true;
Unfortunately that's not enough, because it fixes the normal comparison operators, but they simply forgot to do the same for join conditions.
In case you are using joins just for filtering (as it seems), you can replace them with LINQ Any conditions which translates to SQL EXISTS and nowadays database query optimizers are treating it the same way as if it was an inner join:
var query = (from r in WinCtx.PartsRoutings
where WinCtx.Tab_Processes.Any(s => r.ProcessName == s.ProcessName)
where WinCtx.Tab_Parts.Any(p => r.CustPartNum == p.CustPartNum)
select new { r }).ToList();
You might also consider using just select r since creating anonymous type with single property just introdeces additional memory overhead with no advantages.
Update: Looking at the latest comment, you do need fields from joined tables (that's why it's important to not omit relevant parts of the query in question). In such case, you could try the alternative join syntax with where clauses:
WinCtx.Configuration.UseDatabaseNullSemantics = true;
var query = (from r in WinCtx.PartsRoutings
from s in WinCtx.Tab_Processes where r.ProcessName == s.ProcessName
from p in WinCtx.Tab_Parts where r.CustPartNum == p.CustPartNum
select new { r, s.Foo, p.Bar }).ToList();

Linq to SQL Slow Query

My ASP.Net application has the following Linq to SQL function to get a distinct list of height values from the product table.
public static List<string> getHeightList(string catID)
{
using (CategoriesClassesDataContext db = new CategoriesClassesDataContext())
{
var heightTable = (from p in db.Products
join cp in db.CatProducts on p.ProductID equals cp.ProductID
where p.Enabled == true && (p.CaseOnly == null || p.CaseOnly == false) && cp.CatID == catID
select new { Height = p.Height, sort = Convert.ToDecimal(p.Height.Replace("\"", "")) }).Distinct().OrderBy(s => s.sort);
List<string> heightList = new List<string>();
foreach (var s in heightTable)
{
heightList.Add(s.Height.ToString());
}
return heightList;
}
}
I ran Redgate SQL Monitor which shows that this query is using a lot of resources.
Redgate is also showing that I am running the following query:
select count(distinct [height]) from product p
join catproduct cp on p.productid = cp.productid
join cat c on cp.catid = c.catid
where p.enabled=1 and p.displayfilter = 1 and c.catid = 'C2-14'
My questions are:
A suggestion to change the function so that it uses less resources?
Also, how does linq to sql generate the above query from my function? (I did not write select count(distinct [height]) from product anywhere in the code)
There are 90,000 records in the products. This category which I am trying to get the distinct list of heights has 50,000 product records
Thank you in advance,
Nick
First of all your posted sql query and linq query doesn't match at all. it's not the LINQ query rather the underlying SQL query itself performing slow. Make sure, all the columns involved in JOIN ON clause and WHERE clause and ORDER BY clause are indexed properly in order to have a better execution plan; else you will end up getting a FULL Table Scan and a File Sort and query will deemed to perform slow.
The join multiplies the number of Products the query returns. To undo that, you apply Distinct at the end. It will certainly reduce db resources if you return unique Products right away:
var heightTable = (from p in db.Products
where p.CatProducts.Any(cp => cp.CatID == catID)
&& p.Enabled && (p.CaseOnly == null || !p.CaseOnly)
select new
{
Height = p.Height,
sort = Convert.ToDecimal(p.Height.Replace("\"", ""))
}).OrderBy(s => s.sort);
This changes the join into a where clause. It saves the db engine the trouble of deduplicating the result.
If that still performs poorly, you should try to do the conversion and ordering in memory, i.e. after receiving the raw results from the database.
As for the count. I don't know where it comes from. Such queries typically get generated by paging libraries such as PagedList, but I see no trace of that in your code.
Side note: you can return ...
heightList.Select(x => x.Height.ToString()).ToList()
... instead of creating the list yourself.

using nHibernate QueryOver to join a subset

I am using nHibernate for our database access. I need to do a complicated query to find all member journal entries after a certain date with certain value, PreviousId, set for each member. I can easily write the SQL for it:
SELECT J.MemberId, J.PreviousId
FROM tblMemMemberStatusJournal J
INNER JOIN (
SELECT MemberId,
MIN(EffectiveDate) AS EffectiveDate
FROM tblMemMemberStatusJournal
WHERE EffectiveDate > #StartOfMonth
AND (PreviousId is NOT null)
GROUP BY MemberId
) AS X ON (X.EffectiveDate = J.EffectiveDate AND X.MemberId = J.MemberId)
However I am having a lot of trouble trying to get nHibernate to generate this information. There is not a lot of (any) documentation for how to use QueryOver.
I have been seeing information in other places, but none of it is very clear and very little has an actual explanation as to why things are done in certain ways. The answer for Selecting on Sub Queries in NHibernate with Critieria API did not give an adequate example as to what it is doing, so I haven't been able to replicate it.
I've gotten the inner part of the query created with this:
IList<object[]> result = session.QueryOver<MemberStatusJournal>()
.SelectList(list => list
.SelectGroup(a => a.Member.ID)
.SelectMin(a => a.EffectiveDate))
.Where(j => (j.EffectiveDate > firstOfMonth) && (j.PreviousId != null))
.List<object[]>();
Which, according to the profiler, makes this SQL:
SELECT this_.MemberId as y0_,
min(this_.EffectiveDate) as y1_
FROM tblMemMemberStatusJournal this_
WHERE (this_.EffectiveDate > '2014-08-01T00:00:00' /* #p0 */
and not (this_.PreviousLocalId is null))
GROUP BY this_.MemberId
But I am not finding a good example of how to actually do join this subset with a parent query. Does anyone have any suggestions?
You aren't actually joining on a subset, you're filtering on a subset. Knowing this, you have the option of filtering via other means, in this case, a correlated subquery.
The solution below first creates a detatched query to act as the inner subquery. We can correlate properties of the inner query with properties of the outer query through the use of an alias.
MemberStatusJournal memberStatusJournalAlias = null; // This will represent the
// object of the outer query
var subQuery = QueryOver.Of<MemberStatusJournal>()
.Select(Projections.GroupProperty(Projections.Property<MemberStatusJournal>(m => m.Member.ID)))
.Where(j => (j.EffectiveDate > firstOfMonth) && (j.PreviousId != null))
.Where(Restrictions.EqProperty(
Projections.Min<MemberStatusJournal>(j => j.EffectiveDate),
Projections.Property(() => memberStatusJournalAlias.EffectiveDate)
)
)
.Where(Restrictions.EqProperty(
Projections.GroupProperty(Projections.Property<MemberStatusJournal>(m => m.Member.Id)),
Projections.Property(() => memberStatusJournalAlias.Member.Id)
));
var results = session.QueryOver<MemberStatusJournal>(() => memberStatusJournalAlias)
.WithSubquery
.WhereExists(subQuery)
.List();
This would produce an SQL query like the following:
SELECT blah
FROM tblMemMemberStatusJournal J
WHERE EXISTS (
SELECT J2.MemberId
FROM tblMemberStatusJournal J2
WHERE J2.EffectiveDate > #StartOfMonth
AND (J2.PreviousId is NOT null)
GROUP BY J2.MemberId
HAVING MIN(J2.EffectiveDate) = J.EffectiveDate
AND J2.MemberId = J.MemberId
)
This looks less efficient than the inner join query you opened the question with. But my experience is that the SQL Query Optimizer is clever enough to convert this into an inner join. If you want to confirm this, you can use SQL Studio to generate and compare the execution plans of both queries.

Is this LINQ Query "correct"?

I have the following LINQ query, that is returning the results that I expect, but it does not "feel" right.
Basically it is a left join. I need ALL records from the UserProfile table.
Then the LastWinnerDate is a single record from the winner table (possible multiple records) indicating the DateTime the last record was entered in that table for the user.
WinnerCount is the number of records for the user in the winner table (possible multiple records).
Video1 is basically a bool indicating there is, or is not a record for the user in the winner table matching on a third table Objective (should be 1 or 0 rows).
Quiz1 is same as Video 1 matching another record from Objective Table (should be 1 or 0 rows).
Video and Quiz is repeated 12 times because it is for a report to be displayed to a user listing all user records and indicate if they have met the objectives.
var objectiveIds = new List<int>();
objectiveIds.AddRange(GetObjectiveIds(objectiveName, false));
var q =
from up in MetaData.UserProfile
select new RankingDTO
{
UserId = up.UserID,
FirstName = up.FirstName,
LastName = up.LastName,
LastWinnerDate = (
from winner in MetaData.Winner
where objectiveIds.Contains(winner.ObjectiveID)
where winner.Active
where winner.UserID == up.UserID
orderby winner.CreatedOn descending
select winner.CreatedOn).First(),
WinnerCount = (
from winner in MetaData.Winner
where objectiveIds.Contains(winner.ObjectiveID)
where winner.Active
where winner.UserID == up.UserID
orderby winner.CreatedOn descending
select winner).Count(),
Video1 = (
from winner in MetaData.Winner
join o in MetaData.Objective on winner.ObjectiveID equals o.ObjectiveID
where o.ObjectiveNm == Constants.Promotions.SecVideo1
where winner.Active
where winner.UserID == up.UserID
select winner).Count(),
Quiz1 = (
from winner2 in MetaData.Winner
join o2 in MetaData.Objective on winner2.ObjectiveID equals o2.ObjectiveID
where o2.ObjectiveNm == Constants.Promotions.SecQuiz1
where winner2.Active
where winner2.UserID == up.UserID
select winner2).Count(),
};
You're repeating join winners table part several times. In order to avoid it you can break it into several consequent Selects. So instead of having one huge select, you can make two selects with lesser code. In your example I would first of all select winner2 variable before selecting other result properties:
var q1 =
from up in MetaData.UserProfile
select new {up,
winners = from winner in MetaData.Winner
where winner.Active
where winner.UserID == up.UserID
select winner};
var q = from upWinnerPair in q1
select new RankingDTO
{
UserId = upWinnerPair.up.UserID,
FirstName = upWinnerPair.up.FirstName,
LastName = upWinnerPair.up.LastName,
LastWinnerDate = /* Here you will have more simple and less repeatable code
using winners collection from "upWinnerPair.winners"*/
The query itself is pretty simple: just a main outer query and a series of subselects to retrieve actual column data. While it's not the most efficient means of querying the data you're after (joins and using windowing functions will likely get you better performance), it's the only real way to represent that query using either the query or expression syntax (windowing functions in SQL have no mapping in LINQ or the LINQ-supporting extension methods).
Note that you aren't doing any actual outer joins (left or right) in your code; you're creating subqueries to retrieve the column data. It might be worth looking at the actual SQL being generated by your query. You don't specify which ORM you're using (which would determine how to examine it client-side) or which database you're using (which would determine how to examine it server-side).
If you're using the ADO.NET Entity Framework, you can cast your query to an ObjectQuery and call ToTraceString().
If you're using SQL Server, you can use SQL Server Profiler (assuming you have access to it) to view the SQL being executed, or you can run a trace manually to do the same thing.
To perform an outer join in LINQ query syntax, do this:
Assuming we have two sources alpha and beta, each having a common Id property, you can select from alpha and perform a left join on beta in this way:
from a in alpha
join btemp in beta on a.Id equals btemp.Id into bleft
from b in bleft.DefaultIfEmpty()
select new { IdA = a.Id, IdB = b.Id }
Admittedly, the syntax is a little oblique. Nonetheless, it works and will be translated into something like this in SQL:
select
a.Id as IdA,
b.Id as Idb
from alpha a
left join beta b on a.Id = b.Id
It looks fine to me, though I could see why the multiple sub-queries could trigger inefficiency worries in the eyes of a coder.
Take a look at what SQL is produced though (I'm guessing you're running this against a database source from your saying "table" above), before you start worrying about that. The query providers can be pretty good at producing nice efficient SQL that in turn produces a good underlying database query, and if that's happening, then happy days (it will also give you another view on being sure of the correctness).

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