how to dynamically include (or not) relationships - linq

I'm new to EF5 and LINQ and struggling a bit with the following.
I'm working in an eager load situation, and am wondering how to best write a method to support the following.
entity A has relationships with 3 other entiies.
I want a method returning Listist (no problem)
but I also want the method to have 3 arguments indicating if I want to include each of the 3 other related entities.
so if all three were to be included this works.
var AA = from e in context.A
.Include( "Bs" )
.Include( "Cs" )
.Include( "Ds" )
where e.......
select e;
how can I write it to allow the includes to be either there or not based on my method parameters?

Pass three parameters bool includeBs, bool includeCs and bool includeDs into the method and then use:
DbQuery<A> query = context.A;
if (includeBs)
query = query.Include("Bs");
if (includeCs)
query = query.Include("Cs");
if (includeDs)
query = query.Include("Ds");
var AA = from e in query
where e.......
select e;
As a side note: With EF 5 you should have a strongly typed version of Include available which takes a lambda expression instead of a string as parameter, like Include(a => a.Bs). You can use that as well when you replace DbQuery<A> above by IQueryable<A>.

Related

Why is the "Select" of a Method Syntax is in another parenthesis?

var sample = db.Database.OrderByDescending(x => x.RecordId).Select(y => y.RecordId).FirstOrDefault();
I don't know if my title is correct / right. Just want to ask why this query the select is in another ( )?. As for the example .Select(y => y.RecordId) unlike the query I use to be
var sample = (from s in db.Databse where s.RecordId == id select s) I know this is the same right?. Then what is the why it is in another parenthesis?. Anyone has an idea or can anyone explain it why?. Thanks a lot.
In your first example, you're using "regular" C# syntax to call a bunch of extension methods:
var sample = db.Database
.OrderByDescending(x => x.RecordId)
.Select(y => y.RecordId)
.FirstOrDefault();
(They happen to be extension methods here, but of course they don't have to be...)
You use lambda expressions to express how you want the ordering and projection to be performed, and the compiler converts those into expression trees (assuming this is EF or similar; it would be delegates for LINQ to Objects).
The second example is a query expression, although it doesn't actually match your first example. A query expression corresponding to your original query would be:
var sample = (from x in db.Database
orderby x.RecordId descending
select x.RecordId)
.FirstOrDefault();
Query expressions are very much syntactic sugar. The compiler effectively converts them into the first form, then compiles that. The range variable declared in the from clause (x in this case) is used as the parameter name for the lambda expression, so select x.RecordId becomes .Select(x => x.RecordId).
Things become a bit more complicated with joins and multiple from clauses, as then the compiler introduces transparent identifiers to allow you to work with all the range variables that are in scope, even though you've really only got a single parameter. For example, if you had:
var query = from person in people
from job in person.Jobs
order by person.Name
select new { Person = person, Job = job };
that would be translated into the equivalent of
var query = people.SelectMany(person => person.Jobs, (person, job) => new { person, job } )
.OrderBy(t => t.person.Name)
.Select(t => new { Person = t.person, Job = t.job });
Note how the compiler introduces an anonymous type to combine the person and job range variables into a single object, which is used later on.
Basically, query expression syntax makes LINQ easier to work with - but it's just a translation into other C# code, and is neatly wrapped up in a single section of the C# specification. (Section 7.16.2 of the C# 5 spec.)
See my Edulinq blog post on query expressions for more detail on the precise translation from query expressions to "regular" C#.

Is it possible to write join with a boolean evaluation?

I want to write
CompareInfo myCompIntl = CompareInfo.GetCompareInfo( "es-ES" );
var SharedYomi = from ObjA in ClassListA
join ObjB in ClassListB
where CompareInfo.Compare(ObjA.Name, ObjB.Name) == 0
select new {stringA = stringA, string = string};
Linq forces me to write join with equals. I can not pass in a Boolean evaluation.
How can I do that?
You cannot write that using the LINQ lambda query syntax. The join keyword requires you to specify exactly two properties that are compared using the equals keyword, because this maps to the first overload of Join that uses the default comparer to compare keys.
However, there is an overload of Join that accepts an IEqualityComparer that will probably work for you, you just need to use method query syntax.
Since you sound like you're not familiar with the method syntax, here's a good starting article from MSDN:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/bb397947.aspx
But, basically, the syntax you think of as "LINQ" is just one way to refer to the LINQ extensions, and is really just syntactic sugar around the IEnumerable extension methods that implement LINQ. So, for example, the query:
from x in y where x.IsActive orderby x.Name select x
it basically identical to
y.Where(x => x.IsActive).OrderBy(x => x.Name).Select(x => x);
For the most part, each query clause maps to a particular overload of a particular IEnumerable method, but those methods have a number of other overloads that take different numbers and types of parameters.
The Join methods are a bit complex, because they take two sequences as input and let you combine individual elements of them using expressions, but the idea is exactly the same. A typical join would look like this:
from x in y
join a in b on x.Id equals a.ParentId
select new { x.Id, x.Name, a.Date }
becomes
y.Join(
b,
x => x.Id,
a => a.ParentId,
(x, a) => new { x.Id, x.Name, a.Date });
This will join a.ParentId and x.Id using the default comparison for their data type (int, string, whatever). The compiler directly translates the query syntax into method syntax, so the two behave exactly the same. (Nitpicking my own answer: Technically, the methods are on the Enumerable class, so you are really calling Enumerable.Join. But as they were implemented as extension methods, you can call them either way and the compiler will figure it out.)
In your case, what you need is to pass in a different comparison method, so you can call string.Compare with the explicit encoding. The other overload of Join lets you supply an implementation of IEqualityComparer<T> to use instead of the default. This will require you to implement IEqualityComparer<string> in a separate class, since there's no easy way to create an anonymous interface implementation (perhaps the only feature I miss from Java). For your example, you want something like this:
public class ComparerWithEncoding : IEqualityComparer<string>
{
private CompareInfo compareInfo
public ComparerWithEncoding ( string encoding )
{
this.compareInfo = CompareInfo.GetCompareInfo(encoding);
}
public bool Equals ( string a, string b )
{
return CompareInfo.Compare(a, b) == 0
}
public int GetHashCode(string a)
{
return a.GetHashCode();
}
}
classListA.Join(
ClassListB,
ObjA => ObjA.Name,
ObjB => ObjB.Name,
(ObjA, ObjB) => new { stringA = ObjA.Foo, stringB = ObjB.Bar },
new ComparerWithEncoding("es-ES"));

linq select clause syntax

Linq Select method takes Func as input parameter. This means I can have multiple statements in selector for Select, such as
var myresult = sources.Select(s =>
{int x; if (s.val = high) {x=1} else if (s.val = med) {x=2} else {x=3}; return x;
}
)
How can I do this using Linq query syntax
var myresult = from s in sources
select ...
Here, the code in Func part (if ... else if .. else) is artificial. What I really want to know is the syntax of select clause, which may be described as
select select-expression
What is the syntax of
select-expression
I wouldn't want to see your first version in my code. If you need to have what is basically a full function in the lambda, I would rather see the lambda simply invoke a full function! In other words...
theQuery.Select(s => GetX(s)); // just define a GetX function
And that would also be a straightforward translation to query expression syntax
from s in sources
select GetX(s);
You would not be able to put your full code block into the query expression syntax. You could translate your given logic to something usable (yet messy), however I'm quite sure your snippet is just a general example. On the offhand change it isn't, you might try
select s.val == high ? 1 : (s.val == med ? 2 : 3); // totally messy
Instead of special-casing values, with the if/else equivalent of a switch statement, it is more Linq-friendly to group and filter your values:
var myResult = from s in sources
group by s.val into g
select new { Val = g.Key, Sources = g };
var groupHigh = myResult.Where(i => i.Val == high);
var groupMedium = myResult.Where(i => i.Val == medium);
var groupOther = myResult.Except(groupHigh.Concat(groupMedium));
Note that the code I've provided is just a starting place, and isn't the best way to achieve your specific goal. I'd address this in one of these ways:
Change how group by is used (use SomeFunction(s.Val) instead of directly using s.Val)
Change the code around this query to flow better with the natural groupings, so I didn't require the groups to be transformed
This is not possible.
If you really want to, you could create an Func<T> from an anonymous method and invoke it, but that would be horrible.
MSDN indicates select is a contextual keyword of C# 4.0. So I checked the C# Language Specififcation 4.0. Its Select clauses section (7.16.2.5) specifies that
A query expression of the form
from x in e select v
is translated into
( e ) . Select ( x => v )
except when v is the identifier x, the translation is simply
( e )
As the result, the syntax for
select select-expresion
select-expression should be anything that can be used as TResult in Select Method. So the functionality can be done using anonymous Func in Select method may not be able to achieved using select clause.
Conclusion is that you should stick with Method syntax as this is how the code really runs behind the scene.

Nhibernate linq. The where extension method does not add the where clause to the SQL command, why?

I want to add the where clause to a linq statement, but it doesn't behave as i would expected it to.
When i use this code:
IQueryable<Employee> EmpQuery = from e in Session.Query<Employee>() where e.Surname == "Test" select e;
EmpQuery.ToList();
or i use this code:
IQueryable<Employee> EmpQuery = (from e in Session.Query<Employee>() select e).Where(e => e.Surname == "Test");
EmpQuery.ToList();
The where clause is included in the SQL command, but when i try it this way:
IQueryable<Employee> EmpQuery = from e in Session.Query<Employee>() select e;
EmpQuery.Where(e => e.Surname == "Test");
The where clause is not included in the SQL command. Why is this? Is there another way to dynamically add criteria to a Nhibernate Linq query?
You're not using the return value of Where. LINQ is designed around functional concepts - calling Where doesn't modify the existing query, it returns a new query which applies the filter. The existing query remains as it was - which means you can reuse it for (say) a different filter.
Note that your current query expression (from x in y select x, effectively) is pretty pointless. I would suggest simply writing:
var query = Session.Query<Employee>().Where(e => e.Surname == "Test");
Just to clarify on Jon's remark, your implementation would be fine with the following tweak:
IQueryable<Employee> modifiedQuery = EmpQuery.Where(e => e.Surname == "Test");
Then just invoke the appropriate enumerator (ToList, ToArray, foreach) on modifiedQuery. And I wouldn't say that it create a complete new query, but instead creates a query which wraps around the original (kind of along the lines of the adapter pattern). Granted, your example doesn't need the additions, but this is how you would add additional criteria onto an existing LINQ expression, and that is what your question actually asked.

Getting Last rows from the result of Linq to Sql statement

I couldn't get last articles of every writers in this statement.
List<Editor> lstEditors = dataContext.GetTable<Editor>().Where(t => t.M_Active).Select(t => t).ToList();
var lstArticles = from article in DAO.context.GetTable<Article>().ToList()
join editor in lstEditors on article.RefEditorId equals editor.EditorId
select
new
{
article.M_ArticleId,
article.M_Subject,
article.M_Text,
editor.M_EditorId,
editor.M_Member.M_EditorPicture,
M_NameSurname = editor.M_Member.M_Fname + " " + editor.M_Member.M_Lname
};
Be careful, your query is fetching all the contents of both the Editor and the Yazi tables and then performs Linq-to-Objects on it.
I'm not sure what you ask exactly either, do you want to obtain the list of all writers (editors) along with the last article of each one of these writers?
Do you want to get the writers that did not write any articles yet also?
Edit:
explanation of methods causing an immediate query
Any time you call one of the methods listed below on an IQueryable object (tables or other queries), it performs the actual query to SQL server:
ToList(), ToArray(), ToLookup(), ToDictionay()
Count(), Sum(), Avg(), Aggregate(), Min(), Max()
First(), FirstOrDefault(), Last(), LastOrDefault()
getting last article written by each writer
//create a subquery that returns an editor and its last article date
var editorLastArticleDates =
from article in DAO.context.GetTable<Article>()
group article by article.RefEditor into g
let lastArticleDate= g.Max(x => x.Date)
select new
{
Editor = g.Key,
LastArticleDate = lastArticleDate,
};
//Note: We did not do a ToList() here so the query is not executed
// The editorLastArticleDates object is a IQueryable<>
var query =
from article in DAO.context.GetTable<Article>()
join editorLastArticleDate in editorLastArticleDates
on new { article.Editor, article.Date } // 1
equals new { editorLastArticleDate.Editor, // 2
Date = editorLastArticleDate.LastArticleDate } // 3
select new
{
article.M_ArticleId,
article.M_Subject,
article.M_Text,
article.RefEditor.M_EditorId,
article.RefEditor.M_Member.M_EditorPicture,
M_NameSurname = article.RefEditor.M_Member.M_Fname + " "
+ article.RefEditor.M_Member.M_Lname,
};
//Note: We did not do a ToList() yet so the query is not executed
// The query object is a IQueryable<>
Console.WriteLine(query.ToString()); //Displays SQL query on the console
var results = query.ToList(); // SQL query is executed on this line.
In the code above, I left some remarks on things I had problems with:
When using join, the section between new and equals access only variables declared before the join keyword while the section after the equals keyword has access to the variable defined between join and in.
When writing your join condition, make sure you use equals and not ==.
When using new { XXX, YYY } syntax in your join condition, you declare anonymous types. If the property names are not identical on both sides, it will not compile. In order to have identical property names in this sample, I added the Date = before my value.
By the way, you should use LinqPad to test your queries, it is really a nice tool.

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