How can I order objects in a list? - linq

I simply want to select the unit with highest damage value.
I tried using linq, this is what I'm trying to do, but I get error saying "foreach statement cannot operate on variabls of type Unit because Unit does not contain public instance definition of GetEnumerator":
foreach (Unit unit in units2.OrderByDescending(t => t.maxDamage).FirstOrDefault())
{
SelectUnit(unit);
}

FirstOrDefault returns zero or one item, so no need for the loop (but you might want to check for null)
var unit = units2.OrderByDescending(t => t.maxDamage).FirstOrDefault();
if(unit != null)
SelectUnit(unit)

Related

Access a collection via LINQ and set a single member to a new object

I am trying to access a user object in a collection with the id = to users101 and set this to another users.
Controller.MyObject.SingleOrDefault(x => x.Id == "user101") = OtherUser();
Thanks in advance.
You can't do it with one LINQ expression.
Usually LINQ extensions works on enumerables, if MyObject is a collection you first have to find the required item and then overwrite it with the new object (moreover SingleOrDefault() will simply return null if condition is not satisfied).
You should write something like this (exact code depends on what MyObject is):
var item = Controller.MyObject.SingleOrDefault(x => x.Id == "user101");
if (item != null)
Controller.MyObject[Controller.MyObject.IndexOf(item)] = new OtherUser();
Please note that if you do not really need the check performed by SingleOrDefault() you can simplify the code (and avoid the double search performed in SingleOrDefault() and IndexOf()).
If this is "performance critical" maybe it is better to write an ad-hoc implementation that does this task in one single pass.
Try it in two lines:
var objectWithId = Controller.MyObject.SingleOrDefault(x => x.Id == "user101");
(objectWithId as WhateverTypeOfObjectOtherUserIs) = OtherUser();

Reversing IQueryable based on passed property for sorting logic

I am implementing sort based on parameter passed to ascending or descending OrderBy method
else if (showGrid.Sortdir == "DESC")
{
alerts = DB.Incidents.OfType<Alert>().Where(
a =>
a.IncidentStatusID == (int)AlertStatusType.New ||
a.IncidentStatusID == (int)AlertStatusType.Assigned ||
a.IncidentStatusID == (int)AlertStatusType.Watching)
.OrderByDescending(a => showGrid.Sort);
}
else
{
alerts = DB.Incidents.OfType<Alert>().Where(
a =>
a.IncidentStatusID == (int)AlertStatusType.New ||
a.IncidentStatusID == (int)AlertStatusType.Assigned ||
a.IncidentStatusID == (int)AlertStatusType.Watching)
.OrderBy(a => showGrid.Sort);
}
In case of ascending order sorting it works fine but for descending order sorting doesn't work. I debugged the code and I found that list is not revered its same as ascending order. Please help me
Ok. I've written a small test. It is funny, but your code can actually compile and work, but very differently from what you expect :)
Obviously showGrid is not of type Alert, it is an instance of some other class, that incidentally have the same propery as Alert, called Sort.
First I was confused, because expected this code to fail to compile.
// The signature of OrderBy
public static IOrderedQueryable<TSource> OrderBy<TSource, TKey>(this IQueryable<TSource> source, Expression<Func<TSource, TKey>> keySelector)
// In your case it will result in
public static IOrderedQueryable<Alert> OrderBy<Alert, string>(this IQueryable<Alert> source, Expression<Func<Alert, string>> keySelector)
//when you call it like you do
DB.Incidents.OfType<Alert>().OrderByDescending(a => showGrid.Sort);
// You supply a property from object of type different from your entity.
// This is incorrect usage, the only object you can use here is the
// "a" argument. Like this:
DB.Incidents.OfType<Alert>().OrderByDescending(a => a.Sort);
// Because anything else does not make any sense to entity provider.
So your order by simply does not work.
As far as I understood, what you want is to perform sorting based on selection in UI. This is not easily achieved in strongly-typed LINQ. Because as I showed above, you send a property, not a value to the OrderBy. It does not care about the value inside the prop. So there are several solutions to the problem:
Write a big switch, that will check every possible Sort value, and will append appropriate 'OrderBy(a => a.YouPropToSort)' to the query. This is straitforward, and you should begin with this. Of course this is a static way, and will require to change code everytime you want new columns to be added for sorting.
Create argument for your OrderBy using 'LINQ Expression Trees'. For you case it should not be very hard to do. Look for the term, you will find a lot of examples.
Try to use Dynamic LINQ. I did not not use it myself, just looked at the docs. This seems to be an extension to the normal LINQ which allows you to write parts of queries as strings, to overcome limitations like the current one with dynamic sorting.
Here's my solution to sorting based on user selections:
Create your base query
var query = DB.Incidents.OfType<Alert>.Where(
a =>
a.IncidentStatusID == (int)AlertStatusType.New ||
a.IncidentStatusID == (int)AlertStatusType.Assigned ||
a.IncidentStatusID == (int)AlertStatusType.Watching);
and then apply your sort using a case statement
bool desc = showGrid.SortDir = "DESC";
switch(showGrid.Sort)
{
case "col1":
query = desc ? query.OrderByDescending( a => a.Col1 ) : query.OrderBy( a => a.Col1 );
break;
case "col2":
query = desc ? query.OrderByDescending( a => a.Col2 ) : query.OrderBy( a => a.Col2 );
break;
...
}
var results = query.ToList();

LINQ - using a selected collection between methods/classes

After a lot of searching I wasn't able to find anything that clearly describes why I'm seeing this behavior (and I presume it's something very simple I'm missing - I'm still very much a beginner :)
I have a method (RefreshFilter) that takes an object (rfp) as a parameter. rfp has a property named 'Items' that is of type List.
I have 2 calls to RefreshFilter that look like this:
rfp = RefreshFilter(rfp, FilteredBy.Category)
rfp = RefreshFilter(rfp, FilteredBy.Industry)
Here is the RefreshFilter method:
public FilterParams RefreshFilterList(FilterParams rfp, FilteredBy filteredBy)
{
using (myEntity context as new myEntity())
{
itemsInCategory = (from i in context.items
join ic in context.ItemsCategories on i.Id equals ic.items.id
where ic.Categories.Id == '52'
select i).ToList<items>();
rfp.Items = rfp.Items.Intersect(itemsInCategory).ToList<items>();
}
return rfp;
}
The first call to RefreshFilter(...) works just fine and returns a FilterParams object with a .items property that contains an intersected list.
The second call to RefreshFilter(...) always returns a FilterParams object with a .items property containing an list of 0 elements (which is not expected since I know there are matching elements in the lists).
Through some testing, I believe I have been able to narrow this down to being related to the context that rfp.Items is set in. However I was always under the impression that the proper way to share collections between contexts was to select them into collection objects and pass these objects around, but it seems that these objects are still tied to their initial context in some way.
Thanks,
Try this:
public FilterParams RefreshFilterList(FilterParams rfp, FilteredBy filteredBy)
{
using (myEntity context as new myEntity())
{
itemIdsInCategory = (from i in context.items
join ic in context.ItemsCategories on i.Id equals ic.items.id
where ic.Categories.Id == '52'
select i.Id).ToList<int>();
rfp.Items = rfp.Items.Where(i => itemIdsInCategory.Contains(i.Id)).ToList<Item>();
}
return rfp;
}
Here we are only comparing the unique Ids of the items (int in this case) which could provide a performance benefit as well.

Getting a column value

private string FindTaxItemLocation(string taxItemDescription)
{
if (!templateDS.Tables.Contains(cityStateTaxesTable.TableName))
throw new Exception("The schema dos not include city state employee/employer taxes table");
var cityStateTaxes =
templateDS.Tables[cityStateTaxesTable.TableName].AsEnumerable().FirstOrDefault(
x => x.Field<string>(Fields.Description.Name) == taxItemDescription);//[x.Field<string>(Fields.SteStateCodeKey.Name)]);
if (cityStateTaxes != null)
return cityStateTaxes[Fields.SteStateCodeKey.Name].ToString();
return null;
}
cityStateTaxes is a DataRow, why/how I cannot get the column value inside FirstOrDefault()?
Thanks,
FirstOrDefault() selects the first item in the collection (optionally that satisfies a predicate) or returns null in the case there it is empty (or nothing satisfies the predicate). It will not do projections for you. So if you use it, it can be awkward to access a field of the item since you must include default value checks.
My suggestion is to always project to your desired field(s) first before using FirstOrDefault(), that way you get your field straight without needing to perform the check.
var cityStateTaxes = templateDS.Tables[cityStateTaxesTable.TableName]
.AsEnumerable()
.Where(row => row.Field<string>(Fields.Description.Name) == taxItemDescription) // filter the rows
.Select(row => row.Field<string>(Fields.SteStateCodeKey.Name)) // project to your field
.FirstOrDefault(); // you now have your property (or the default value)
return cityStateTaxes;

LINQ to SQL bug (or very strange feature) when using IQueryable, foreach, and multiple Where

I ran into a scenario where LINQ to SQL acts very strangely. I would like to know if I'm doing something wrong. But I think there is a real possibility that it's a bug.
The code pasted below isn't my real code. It is a simplified version I created for this post, using the Northwind database.
A little background: I have a method that takes an IQueryable of Product and a "filter object" (which I will describe in a minute). It should run some "Where" extension methods on the IQueryable, based on the "filter object", and then return the IQueryable.
The so-called "filter object" is a System.Collections.Generic.List of an anonymous type of this structure: { column = fieldEnum, id = int }
The fieldEnum is an enum of the different columns of the Products table that I would possibly like to use for the filtering.
Instead of explaining further how my code works, it's easier if you just take a look at it. It's simple to follow.
enum filterType { supplier = 1, category }
public IQueryable<Product> getIQueryableProducts()
{
NorthwindDataClassesDataContext db = new NorthwindDataClassesDataContext();
IQueryable<Product> query = db.Products.AsQueryable();
//this section is just for the example. It creates a Generic List of an Anonymous Type
//with two objects. In real life I get the same kind of collection, but it isn't hard coded like here
var filter1 = new { column = filterType.supplier, id = 7 };
var filter2 = new { column = filterType.category, id = 3 };
var filterList = (new[] { filter1 }).ToList();
filterList.Add(filter2);
foreach(var oFilter in filterList)
{
switch (oFilter.column)
{
case filterType.supplier:
query = query.Where(p => p.SupplierID == oFilter.id);
break;
case filterType.category:
query = query.Where(p => p.CategoryID == oFilter.id);
break;
default:
break;
}
}
return query;
}
So here is an example. Let's say the List contains two items of this anonymous type, { column = fieldEnum.Supplier, id = 7 } and { column = fieldEnum.Category, id = 3}.
After running the code above, the underlying SQL query of the IQueryable object should contain:
WHERE SupplierID = 7 AND CategoryID = 3
But in reality, after the code runs the SQL that gets executed is
WHERE SupplierID = 3 AND CategoryID = 3
I tried defining query as a property and setting a breakpoint on the setter, thinking I could catch what's changing it when it shouldn't be. But everything was supposedly fine. So instead I just checked the underlying SQL after every command. I realized that the first Where runs fine, and query stays fine (meaning SupplierID = 7) until right after the foreach loop runs the second time. Right after oFilter becomes the second anonymous type item, and not the first, the 'query' SQL changes to Supplier = 3. So what must be happening here under-the-hood is that instead of just remembering that Supplier should equal 7, LINQ to SQL remembers that Supplier should equal oFilter.id. But oFilter is a name of a single item of a foreach loop, and it means something different after it iterates.
I have only glanced at your question, but I am 90% sure that you should read the first section of On lambdas, capture, and mutability (which includes links to 5 similar SO questions) and all will become clear.
The basic gist of it is that the variable oFilter in your example has been captured in the closure by reference and not by value. That means that once the loop finishes iterating, the variable's reference is to the last one, so the value as evaluated at lambda execution time is the final one as well.
The cure is to insert a new variable inside the foreach loop whose scope is only that iteration rather than the whole loop:
foreach(var oFilter in filterList)
{
var filter = oFilter; // add this
switch (oFilter.column) // this doesn't have to change, but can for consistency
{
case filterType.supplier:
query = query.Where(p => p.SupplierID == filter.id); // use `filter` here
break;
Now each closure is over a different filter variable that is declared anew inside of each loop, and your code will run as expected.
Working as designed. The issue you are confronting is the clash between lexical closure and mutable variables.
What you probably want to do is
foreach(var oFilter in filterList)
{
var o = oFilter;
switch (o.column)
{
case filterType.supplier:
query = query.Where(p => p.SupplierID == o.id);
break;
case filterType.category:
query = query.Where(p => p.CategoryID == o.id);
break;
default:
break;
}
}
When compiled to IL, the variable oFilter is declared once and used multiply. What you need is a variable declared separately for each use of that variable within a closure, which is what o is now there for.
While you're at it, get rid of that bastardized Hungarian notation :P.
I think this is the clearest explanation I've ever seen: http://blogs.msdn.com/ericlippert/archive/2009/11/12/closing-over-the-loop-variable-considered-harmful.aspx:
Basically, the problem arises because we specify that the foreach loop is a syntactic sugar for
{
IEnumerator<int> e = ((IEnumerable<int>)values).GetEnumerator();
try
{
int m; // OUTSIDE THE ACTUAL LOOP
while(e.MoveNext())
{
m = (int)(int)e.Current;
funcs.Add(()=>m);
}
}
finally
{
if (e != null) ((IDisposable)e).Dispose();
}
}
If we specified that the expansion was
try
{
while(e.MoveNext())
{
int m; // INSIDE
m = (int)(int)e.Current;
funcs.Add(()=>m);
}
then the code would behave as expected.
The problem is that you're not appending to the query, you're replacing it each time through the foreach statement.
You want something like the PredicateBuilder - http://www.albahari.com/nutshell/predicatebuilder.aspx

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