How To Break Up EntityReferenceCollection? - dynamics-crm

Question

I am writing a method that would break up the EntityReferenceCollection into a specified chunk size. I have the code for a list but no idea how to do so for an EntityReferenceCollection PLEASE HELP!
public static List<List<T>> Split<T>(List<T> collection, int size)
{
var chunks = new List<List<T>>();
var chunkCount = collection.Count() / size;
if (collection.Count % size > 0)
chunkCount++;
for (var i = 0; i < chunkCount; i++)
chunks.Add(collection.Skip(i * size).Take(size).ToList());
return chunks;
}
I am trying to do a bulk delete:
string fetchXml = #" <fetch version='1.0' output-format='xml-platform' mapping='logical' distinct='false'>
<entity name='new_units'>
<link-entity name='new_alterunitorder' from ='new_orderlineid' to = 'new_unitsid' >
<attribute name='new_alterunitorderid' />
<filter type='and'>
<condition attribute='new_orderdate' operator='on-or-after' value='" + startDate.ToShortDateString() + #"' />
<condition attribute='new_orderdate' operator='on-or-before' value='" + endDate.ToShortDateString() + #"' />
<condition attribute='new_orderlineid' operator='eq' uiname='" + uiName + #"' uitype='new_units' value='" + unitOrderId + #"' />
</filter>
</link-entity>
</entity>
</fetch>";
EntityCollection result = service.RetrieveMultiple(new FetchExpression(fetchXml));
var entRefCollection = new EntityReferenceCollection();
foreach (var id in result.Entities)
{
var reference = id.GetAttributeValue<EntityReference>("new_alterunitorderid");
entRefCollection.Add(reference);
}
if(entRefCollection.Count < 1000)
{
Bulk.BulkDelete(service, entRefCollection);
}
else
{
Bulk.BulkDelete(service, entRefCollection_one); //1st half of EntityReferenceCollection
Bulk.BulkDelete(service, entRefCollection_two);
}

Answer 1

Thanks for that update. I also just posted an answer on your other question about bulk delete.
In short, if you're going to do this yourself in code you could use the FetchXML paging cookie to download batches of 1000 records and then do multi-request batches of 1000 deletes as well.
I find the paging in LINQ to be a bit friendlier than FetchXML, so you might want to switch to a LINQ query, and page through that via the same type of syntax you're using in your List example: Skip(i * size).Take(size)
Or, as I posted on the other question you can submit a bulk delete job.