What is the explanation for EF downloading all result rows when AsEnumerable() is used?
What I mean is that this code:
context.Logs.AsEnumerable().Where(x => x.Id % 2 == 0).Take(100).ToList();
will download all the rows from the table before passing any row to the Where() method and there could be millions of rows in the table.
What I would like it to do, is to download only enough to gather 100 rows that would satisfy the Id % 2 == 0 condition (most likely just around 200 rows).
Couldn't EF do on demand loading of rows like you can with plain ADO.NET using Read() method of SqlDataReader and save time and bandwidth?
I suppose that it does not work like that for a reason and I'd like to hear a good argument supporting that design decision.
NOTE: This is a completely contrived example and I know normally you should not use EF this way, but I found this in some existing code and was just surprised my assumptions turned out to be incorrect.
The short answer: The reason for the different behaviors is that, when you use IQueryable directly, a single SQL query can be formed for your entire LINQ query; but when you use IEnumerable, the entire table of data must be loaded.
The long answer: Consider the following code.
context.Logs.Where(x => x.Id % 2 == 0)
context.Logs is of type IQueryable<Log>. IQueryable<Log>.Where is taking an Expression<Func<Log, bool>> as the predicate. The Expression represents an abstract syntax tree; that is, it's more than just code you can run. Think of it as being represented in memory, at runtime, like this:
Lambda (=>)
Parameters
Variable: x
Body
Equals (==)
Modulo (%)
PropertyAccess (.)
Variable: x
Property: Id
Constant: 2
Constant: 0
The LINQ-to-Entities engine can take context.Logs.Where(x => x.Id % 2 == 0) and mechanically convert it into a SQL query that looks something like this:
SELECT *
FROM "Logs"
WHERE "Logs"."Id" % 2 = 0;
If you change your code to context.Logs.Where(x => x.Id % 2 == 0).Take(100), the SQL query becomes something like this:
SELECT *
FROM "Logs"
WHERE "Logs"."Id" % 2 = 0
LIMIT 100;
This is entirely because the LINQ extension methods on IQueryable use Expression instead of just Func.
Now consider context.Logs.AsEnumerable().Where(x => x.Id % 2 == 0). The IEnumerable<Log>.Where extension method is taking a Func<Log, bool> as a predicate. That is only runnable code. It cannot be analyzed to determine its structure; it cannot be used to form a SQL query.
Entity Framework and Linq use lazy loading. It means (among other things) that they will not run the query until they need to enumerate the results: for instance using ToList() or AsEnumerable(), or if the result is used as an enumerator (in a foreach for instance).
Instead, it builds a query using predicates, and returns IQueryable objects to further "pre-filter" the results before actually returning them. You can find more infos here for instance. Entity framework will actually build a SQL query depending on the predicates you have passed it.
In your example:
context.Logs.AsEnumerable().Where(x => x.Id % 2 == 0).Take(100).ToList();
From the Logs table in the context, it fetches all, returns a IEnumerable with the results, then filters the result, takes the first 100, then lists the results as a List.
On the other hand, just removing the AsEnumerable solves your problem:
context.Logs.Where(x => x.Id % 2 == 0).Take(100).ToList();
Here it will build a query/filter on the result, then only once the ToList() is executed, query the database.
It also means that you can dynamically build a complex query without actually running it on the DB it until the end, for instance:
var logs = context.Logs.Where(a); // first filter
if (something) {
logs = logs.Where(b); // second filter
}
var results = logs.Take(100).ToList(); // only here is the query actually executed
Update
As mentionned in your comment, you seem to already know what I just wrote, and are just asking for a reason.
It's even simpler: since AsEnumerable casts the results to another type (a IQueryable<T> to IEnumerable<T> in this case), it has to convert all the results rows first, so it has to fetch the data first. It's basically a ToList in this case.
Clearly, you understand why it's better to avoid using AsEnumerable() the way you do in your question.
Also, some of the other answers have made it very clear why calling AsEnumerable() changes the way the query is performed and read. In short, it's because you are then invoking IEnumrable<T> extension methods rather than the IQueryable<T> extension methods, the latter allowing you to combine predicates before executing the query in the database.
However, I still feel that this doesn't answer your actual question, which is a legitimate question. You said (emphasis mine):
What I mean is that this code:
context.Logs.AsEnumerable().Where(x => x.Id % 2 == 0).Take(100).ToList();
will download all the rows from the table before passing any row to the Where() method and there could be millions of rows in the table.
My question to you is: what made you conclude that this is true?
I would argue that, because you are using IEnumrable<T> instead of IQueryable<T>, it's true that the query being performed in the database will be a simple:
select * from logs
... without any predicates, unlike what would have happened if you had used IQueryable<T> to invoke Where and Take.
However, the AsEnumerable() method call does not fetch all the rows at that moment, as other answers have implied. In fact, this is the implementation of the AsEnumerable() call:
public static IEnumerable<TSource> AsEnumerable<TSource>(this IEnumerable<TSource> source)
{
return source;
}
There is no fetching going on there. In fact, even the calls to IEnumerable<T>.Where() and IEnumerable<T>.Take() don't actually start fetching any rows at that moment. They simply setup wrapping IEnumerables that will filter results as they are iterated on. The fetching and iterating of the results really only begins when ToList() is called.
So when you say:
Couldn't EF do on demand loading of rows like you can with plain ADO.NET using Read() method of SqlDataReader and save time and bandwidth?
... again, my question to you would be: doesn't it do that already?
If your table had 1,000,000 rows, I would still expect your code snippet to only fetch up to 100 rows that satisfy your Where condition, and then stop fetching rows.
To prove the point, try running the following little program:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var list = PretendImAOneMillionRecordTable().Where(i => i < 500).Take(10).ToList();
}
private static IEnumerable<int> PretendImAOneMillionRecordTable()
{
for (int i = 0; i < 1000000; i++)
{
Console.WriteLine("fetching {0}", i);
yield return i;
}
}
... when I run it, I only get the following 10 lines of output:
fetching 0
fetching 1
fetching 2
fetching 3
fetching 4
fetching 5
fetching 6
fetching 7
fetching 8
fetching 9
It doesn't iterate through the whole set of 1,000,000 "rows" even though I am chaining Where() and Take() calls on IEnumerable<T>.
Now, you do have to keep in mind that, for your little EF code snippet, if you test it using a very small table, it may actually fetch all the rows at once, if all the rows fit within the value for SqlConnection.PacketSize. This is normal. Every time SqlDataReader.Read() is called, it never only fetches a single row at a time. To reduce the amount of network call roundtrips, it will always try to fetch a batch of rows at a time. I wonder if this is what you observed, and this mislead you into thinking that AsEnumerable() was causing all rows to be fetched from the table.
Even though you will find that your example doesn't perform nearly as bad as you thought, this would not be a reason not to use IQueryable. Using IQueryable to construct more complex database queries will almost always provide better performance, because you can then benefit from database indexes, etc to fetch results more efficiently.
AsEnumerable() eagerly loads the DbSet<T> Logs
You probably want something like
context.Logs.Where(x => x.Id % 2 == 0).AsEnumerable();
The idea here is that you're applying a predicate filter to the collection before actually loading it from the database.
An impressive subset of the world of LINQ is supported by EF. It will translate your beautiful LINQ queries into SQL expressions behind the scenes.
I have come across this before.
The context command is not executed until a linq function is called, because you have done
context.Logs.AsEnumerable()
it has assumed you have finished with the query and therefore compiled it and returns all rows.
If you changed this to:
context.Logs.Where(x => x.Id % 2 == 0).AsEnumerable()
It would compile a SQL statement that would get only the rows where the id is modular 2.
Similarly if you did
context.Logs.Where(x => x.Id % 2 == 0).Take(100).ToList();
that would create a statement that would get the top 100...
I hope that helps.
LinQ to Entities has a store expression formed by all the Linq methods before It goes to an enumeration.
When you use AsEnumerable() and then Where() like this:
context.Logs.Where(...).AsEnumerable()
The Where() knows that the previous chain call has a store expression so he appends his predicate to It for lazy loading.
The overload of Where that is being called is different if you call this:
context.Logs.AsEnumerable().Where(...)
Here the Where() only knows that his previous method is an enumeration (it could be any kind of "enumerable" collection) and the only way that he can apply his condition is iterating over the collection with the IEnumerable implementation of the DbSet class, which must to retrieve the records from the database first.
I don't think you should ever use this:
context.Logs.AsEnumerable().Where(x => x.Id % 2 == 0).Take(100).ToList();
The correct way of doing things would be:
context.Logs.AsQueryable().Where(x => x.Id % 2 == 0).Take(100).ToList();
Answer with explanations here:
What's the difference(s) between .ToList(), .AsEnumerable(), AsQueryable()?
Why use AsQueryable() instead of List()?
Admittedly I don't perform lots of LINQ queries. Therefore I'm uncertain whether the problem I see is due to an obvious LINQ blunder or a legitimate Mongo driver problem (I use 10Gen 1.9.2 C# driver). In the below code I get an error indicating invalid where clause for .where(ques => unAnswered...). Code compiles fine but generates runtime error stating "unsupported where clause". Am I up against a driver limitation or is my LINQ bad?
public IEnumerable<QuestionDataModel> getUnanswered(String username, Category cat)
{
IQueryable<QuestionDataModel> questions =
from e in this.questionCollection.AsQueryable<QuestionDataModel>()
where (e.questionCategory == cat)
select e;
IQueryable<AnswerDataModel> answers =
from e in this.answerCollection.AsQueryable<AnswerDataModel>()
where (e.questionCategory == cat && e.username == username)
select e;
IEnumerable<QuestionDataModel> filteredquestionslist = null;
if (answers.Count()==0) // it's possible the user has not answered anything
filteredquestionslist = questions.ToList();
else
filteredquestionslist = questions.Where(ques => unAnswered(ques, ref answers)).ToList();
return filteredquestionslist;
}
private bool unAnswered(QuestionDataModel qdm, ref IQueryable<AnswerDataModel> answer_queryable)
{
bool retval;
retval = answer_queryable.Any(ans => ans.questionID == qdm.questionID) ? false:true;
return retval;
}
You can't combine two collections in a single query like this with MongoDB - there are no join operations in the database. (You also generally can't use your own method like that in LINQ since they don't translate into SQL (or any other database) but that's a separate issue and even if you fixed that it still wouldn't help here. unAnswered question cannot be translated into Mongo a query).
You must either iterate over one collection, performing the other query and yield return the results you want (i.e. the join happens not in the database but on the computer making the query), or you could denormalize the data in some way such that you can query a single collection to get the results. Of if the number of questions is really small you could possibly load them into a list using .ToList() and then operating on that list in memory.
I'm using NHibernate 3.2 and I have a repository method that looks like:
public IEnumerable<MyModel> GetActiveMyModel()
{
return from m in Session.Query<MyModel>()
where m.Active == true
select m;
}
Which works as expected. However, sometimes when I use this method I want to filter it further:
var models = MyRepository.GetActiveMyModel();
var filtered = from m in models
where m.ID < 100
select new { m.Name };
Which produces the same SQL as the first one and the second filter and select must be done after the fact. I thought the whole point in LINQ is that it formed an expression tree that was unravelled when it's needed and therefore the correct SQL for the job could be created, saving my database requests.
If not, it means all of my repository methods have to return exactly what is needed and I can't make use of LINQ further down the chain without taking a penalty.
Have I got this wrong?
Updated
In response to the comment below: I omitted the line where I iterate over the results, which causes the initial SQL to be run (WHERE Active = 1) and the second filter (ID < 100) is obviously done in .NET.
Also, If I replace the second chunk of code with
var models = MyRepository.GetActiveMyModel();
var filtered = from m in models
where m.Items.Count > 0
select new { m.Name };
It generates the initial SQL to retrieve the active records and then runs a separate SQL statement for each record to find out how many Items it has, rather than writing something like I'd expect:
SELECT Name
FROM MyModel m
WHERE Active = 1
AND (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Items WHERE MyModelID = m.ID) > 0
You are returning IEnumerable<MyModel> from the method, which will cause in-memory evaluation from that point on, even if the underlying sequence is IQueryable<MyModel>.
If you want to allow code after GetActiveMyModel to add to the SQL query, return IQueryable<MyModel> instead.
You're running IEnumerable's extension method "Where" instead of IQueryable's. It will still evaluate lazily and give the same output, however it evaluates the IQueryable on entry and you're filtering the collection in memory instead of against the database.
When you later add an extra condition on another table (the count), it has to lazily fetch each and every one of the Items collections from the database since it has already evaluated the IQueryable before it knew about the condition.
(Yes, I would also like to be the extensive extension methods on IEnumerable to instead be virtual members, but, alas, they're not)
I have a non-trivial Linq To Sql query that I'm trying to break down into pieces for the sake of readability / further filtering / reuse.
The refactored code looks like this, where ids is the subquery performed to grab the ids.
var results = from solution in context.csExtendedQAIncident_Docs
join solutionText in context.csNTexts
on solution.chIdNo equals solutionText.chIdNo
where solutionText.chColumnId == "Solution"
//this is a very complicated subquery that returns a short list of the ids we need
&& (ids).Select(s => s.chIdNo)
//the TOP query portion - applied to just the ids
.Take(count ?? Settings.Current.WCFServices().Output.HomePage.MaxRows)
.Contains(solution.chIdNo)
select solution;
The 'ids' is an IOrderedQueryable<csExtendedQAIncident_Docs> which itself has a number of criteria and nested subqueries (i.e. Contains which gets translated into EXISTS style queries on SQL server)
In any event, the issue here is that when the full-blown subquery is included in the results query above, the query works without a hitch.
When the query is pulled out into it's own variable, the query dies at runtime with a NullReferenceException at SqlFactory.Member (partial stack trace below)
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at System.Data.Linq.SqlClient.SqlFactory.Member(SqlExpression expr, MemberInfo member)
at System.Data.Linq.SqlClient.QueryConverter.VisitMemberAccess(MemberExpression ma)
at System.Data.Linq.SqlClient.QueryConverter.VisitInner(Expression node)
at System.Data.Linq.SqlClient.QueryConverter.Visit(Expression node)
at System.Data.Linq.SqlClient.QueryConverter.VisitExpression(Expression exp)
at System.Data.Linq.SqlClient.QueryConverter.VisitMethodCall(MethodCallExpression mc)
at System.Data.Linq.SqlClient.QueryConverter.VisitInner(Expression node)
at System.Data.Linq.SqlClient.QueryConverter.Visit(Expression node)
at System.Data.Linq.SqlClient.QueryConverter.VisitExpression(Expression exp)
at
I suspect this is a bug in Linq to Sql's query evaluation process -- but was wondering if anyone else might have come across such an issue?
I stepped into the Framework source code -- but of course the trouble with that is that while I can hit the exact source line of the exception, the Linq assembly I'm using has been optimized and I can't inspect variables, etc.
Note: Keep in mind that this query, despite being a little long is actually not a great candidate in this scenario for a SPROC (especially since we're stuck on SQL 2000 here and can't parameterize TOP :( )
Edit: Found one other reference to a very similar issue out there that was never resolved http://www.eggheadcafe.com/software/aspnet/31934404/linq-combined-query.aspx
Edit2: Ask and ye shall receive ;0 I figured I would keep the id subquery out of here because I don't think its actually relevant (and as mentioned its complicated, etc). Please don't blame the crap db design on me -- but know that I worked on the SQL for this query for a bit to get acceptable performance, and then translated to Linq To Sql.
var ids = from solutionIds in context.csExtendedQAIncident_Docs
where solutionIds.iIncidentTypeId == 102094
&& solutionIds.tiRecordStatus == 1
&& solutionIds.iLanguage == 102074
&& null != solutionIds.chIdNo
&& (from openTo in context.csOpenTos
where onyxIdentity.GetDocumentAccessLevels().Union(new[] { "BUSG5" }).ToArray().Contains(openTo.vchOpenTo)
select openTo.chIdNo
).Distinct().Contains(solutionIds.chIdNo)
&& (from solutionProductAssocation in context.csProductDocs
where (from allowedProduct in context.KB_User_Allowed_Products
where allowedProduct.UserId == userId
select allowedProduct.ModelCode
).Contains(solutionProductAssocation.chModelCd)
select solutionProductAssocation.chIdNo).Distinct().Contains(solutionIds.chIdNo)
orderby solutionIds.dtUpdateDate descending
select solutionIds;
I've been developing a webapp using Linq to NHibernate for the past few months, but haven't profiled the SQL it generates until now. Using NH Profiler, it now seems that the following chunk of code hits the DB more than 3,000 times when the Linq expression is executed.
var activeCaseList = from c in UserRepository.GetCasesByProjectManagerID(consultantId)
where c.CompletionDate == null
select new { c.PropertyID, c.Reference, c.Property.Address, DaysOld = DateTime.Now.Subtract(c.CreationDate).Days, JobValue = String.Format("£{0:0,0}", c.JobValue), c.CurrentStatus };
Where the Repository method looks like:
public IEnumerable<Case> GetCasesByProjectManagerID(int projectManagerId)
{
return from c in Session.Linq<Case>()
where c.ProjectManagerID == projectManagerId
select c;
}
It appears to run the initial Repository query first, then iterates through all of the results checking to see if the CompletionDate is null, but issuing a query to get c.Property.Address first.
So if the initial query returns 2,000 records, even if only five of them have no CompletionDate, it still fires off an SQL query to bring back the address details for the 2,000 records.
The way I had imagined this would work, is that it would evaluate all of the WHERE and SELECT clauses and simply amalgamate them, so the inital query would be like:
SELECT ... WHERE ProjectManager = #p1 AND CompleteDate IS NOT NULL
Which would yield 5 records, and then it could fire the further 5 queries to obtain the addresses. Am I expecting too much here, or am I simply doing something wrong?
Anthony
Change the declaration of GetCasesByProjectManagerID:
public IQueryable<Case> GetCasesByProjectManagerID(int projectManagerId)
You can't compose queries with IEnumerable<T> - they're just sequences. IQueryable<T> is specifically designed for composition like this.
Since I can't add a comment yet. Jon Skeet is right you'll want to use IQueryable, this is allows the Linq provider to Lazily construct the SQL. IEnumerable is the eager version.