How to group and count missing values using linq - linq

Question

How do I go about counting missing values using linq. Basically I am counting occurrences within a particular month and I want the count to show as zero if there were no entries for that particular month.
However, currently if there are no entries for that month the array skips a month as shown at index 5 below. The reason I don't want this to happen is because I am plotting the results on a chart so the skipped dates are out of sync from index 5 onwards with the actual count.
Below is my linq query
var veterans = _db.Records
.Where(j => j.Requestor == "Veterans" && EF.Functions.DateDiffMonth(j.Request_Date, DateTime.Now) >= 0 && EF.Functions.DateDiffMonth(j.Request_Date, DateTime.Now) <= 24)
.GroupBy(g => new { g.Request_Date.Value.Year, g.Request_Date.Value.Month }).OrderBy(d => d.Key.Year).ThenBy(d => d.Key.Month)
.Select(group => new
{
Dates = group.Key,
Count = group.Count()
});
var veteransCount = veterans.Select(n => n.Count).ToArray();

Answer 1

You can create a helper function to generate the month+year enumeration you need:
public static IEnumerable<(int Year,int Month)> MonthsInYears(int fromYear, int fromMonth, int toYear, int toMonth) {
for (int year = fromYear; year <= toYear; ++year)
for (int month = (year == fromYear ? fromMonth : 1); month <= (year == toYear ? toMonth : 12); ++month)
yield return (year, month);
}
Then using this, you can create an enumeration of the period:
var veterans = _db.Records
.Where(j => j.Requestor == "Veterans" && EF.Functions.DateDiffMonth(j.Request_Date, DateTime.Now) >= 0 && EF.Functions.DateDiffMonth(j.Request_Date, DateTime.Now) <= 24)
.GroupBy(g => new { g.Request_Date.Value.Year, g.Request_Date.Value.Month }).OrderBy(d => d.Key.Year).ThenBy(d => d.Key.Month)
.Select(group => new {
YearMonth = group.Key,
Count = group.Count()
});
var minYearMonth = veterans.Select(v => v.YearMonth).First();
var maxYearMonth = veterans.Select(v => v.YearMonth).Last();
var monthsInYears = MonthsInYears(minYearMonth.Year, minYearMonth.Month, maxYearMonth.Year, maxYearMonth.Month);
Then you can GroupJoin (as a left join) to your database data:
var veteransCount = monthsInYears.GroupJoin(
veterans,
ym => new { ym.Year, ym.Month },
v => v.YearMonth,
(ym, sj) => sj.FirstOrDefault()?.Count ?? 0)
.ToArray();
Alternatively, since this is a specific case, you could create a Dictionary for your source data and lookup each enumeration value:
var veteransMap = veterans.ToDictionary(v => v.YearMonth, v => v.Count);
var veteransCount2 = monthsInYears.Select(ym => veteransMap.TryGetValue(new { ym.Year, ym.Month }, out var count) ? count : 0)
.ToArray();
NOTE: If you want the full beginning and ending years, you could just call the MonthsInYears method with 1 and 12 for the from and to months.