Select Foreign key data in EF - linq

Question

I have 2 models : Account and Task
public class Account
{
[DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Identity)]
public int Id { get; set; }
[Key]
public Guid UserId { get; set; }
public string UserType { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
}
public class Task
{
[DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.Identity)]
public int id { get; set; }
[Key]
public Guid TaskId { get; set; }
[ForeignKey("TaskSubType")]
public Guid TaskSubTypeId { get; set; }
public virtual TaskSubType TaskSubType { get; set; }
[ForeignKey("Account")]
public Guid TaskCreator { get; set; }
public virtual Account Account { get; set; }
}
I call getTasks:
public List<TaskOverViewViewModel> GetTasks()
{
IEnumerable<Task> result = db.Tasks.AsEnumerable();
List<TaskOverViewViewModel> list = ToViewModelMapper.toViewModel(result);
return list;
}
public class ToViewModelMapper
{
internal static List<TaskOverViewViewModel> toViewModel(IEnumerable<Task> entitys )
{
List<TaskOverViewViewModel> modelList = new List<TaskOverViewViewModel>();
foreach (var entity in entitys)
{
TaskOverViewViewModel model = new TaskOverViewViewModel();
model.SubTaskName = entity.TaskSubType.Name;
model.TaskCreator = entity.Account.LoginName;
model.ToolsAccesable = entity.ToolsAccesable;
modelList.Add(model);
}
return modelList;
}
}
But it fails because i entity.TaskSubType and entity.Account is null. But if i return IEnumerable<Task> result = db.Tasks.AsEnumerable(); in the call everything works fine and i can see that Json contains all TaskSubtype and Account models.

Answer 1

From linq-to-entities, you can project directly to your ViewModel class.
public List<TaskOverViewViewModel> GetTasks()
{
List<TaskOverViewViewModel> result = (from t in db.Tasks
select new TaskOverViewViewModel
{
SubTaskName = t.TaskSubType.Name;
TaskCreator = t.Account.LoginName;
ToolsAccesable = t.ToolsAccesable;
}).ToList();
return result;
}
If you prefer method syntax, you can use this:
List<TaskOverViewViewModel> result = db.Tasks.Select(t => new TaskOverViewViewModel
{
SubTaskName = t.TaskSubType.Name;
TaskCreator = t.Account.LoginName;
ToolsAccesable = t.ToolsAccesable;
}).ToList();