Querying M:M relationships using Entity Framework - linq

How would I modify the following code:
var result = from p in Cache.Model.Products
from f in p.Flavours
where f.FlavourID == "012541-5-5-5-651"
select p;
So that f.FlavourID is supplied a range of ID's as a supposed to just one value as shown in the above example?
Given the following ERD Model:
Products* => ProdCombinations <= *Flavours
ProdCombinations is a junction/link table and simply has one composite key in there.

Of the top of my head
string [] ids = new[]{"012541-5-5-5-651", "012541-5-5-5-652", "012541-5-5-5-653"};
var result = from p in Cache.Model.Products
from f in p.Flavours
where ids.Contains(f.FlavourID)
select p;
There are some limitations, but an array of ids has worked for me before. I've only actually tried with SQL Server backend, and my IDs were integers.
As I understand it, Linq needs to translate your query into SQL, and it's only possible sometimes. For example it's not possible with IEnumerable<SomeClass>, which produces a runtime error, but possible with a collection of simple types.

Related

Linq To Entities 'Only primitive types or enumeration types are supported' Error

I am using LinqPad to test my query. This query works when the LInqPad connection is to my database (LInq to SQL) but it does not work when I change the connection to use my Entity Framework 5 Model.dll. (Linq to Entity). This is in C#.
I have two tables called Plan and PlanDetails. Relationship is one Plan to many PlanDetails.
var q = from pd in PlanDetails
select new {
pd.PlanDetailID,
ThePlanName = (from p in this.Plans
where p.PlanID == pd.PlanID
select p.PlanName)
};
var results = q.ToList();
q.Dump(); //This is a linqpad method to output the result.
I get this error "NotSupportedException: Unable to create a constant value of type 'Domain.Data.Plan'. Only primitive types or enumeration types are supported in this context." Any ideas why this only works with Linq to SQL?
basically it means you are using some complex datatype inside the query for comparison.
in your case i suspect from p in this.Plans where p.PlanID == pd.PlanID is the culprit.
And it depends on DataProvider. It might work for Sql Data Provider, but not for SqlCE data Provider and so on.
what you should do is to convert your this.Plans collection into a primitive type collection containing only the Ids i.e.
var integers = PlanDetails.Plans.Select(s=>s.Id).ToList();
and then use this list inside.
var q = from pd in PlanDetails
select new {
pd.PlanDetailID,
ThePlanName = (from p in integers
where p == pd.PlanID
select pd.PlanName)
};
I got this error when i was trying to null check for a navigational property in the entity framework expression
I resolved it by not using the not null check in the expression and just using Any() function only.
protected Expression<Func<Entities.Employee, bool>> BriefShouldAppearInSearchResults(
IQueryable<Entities.Employee> briefs, string username)
{
var trimmedUsername = NameHelper.GetFormattedName(username);
Expression<Func<Entities.Employee, bool>> filterExpression = cse =>
cse.Employee.Cars.All(c =>
c.Employee.Cars!=null && <--Removing this line resolved my issue
c.Employee.Cars.Any(cur => cur.CarMake =="Benz")));
return filterExpression;
}
Hope this helps someone!
This is a Linqpad bug if you like (or a peculiarity). I found similar behaviour myself. Like me, you may find that your query works with an ObjectContext, but not a DbContext. (And it works in Visual Studio).
I think it has to do with Linqpad's inner structure. It adds MergeAs (AppendOnly) to collections and the context is a UserQuery, which probably contains some code that causes this bug.
This is confirmed by the fact that the code does work when you create a new context instance in the Linqpad code and run the query against this instance.
If the relationship already exists.
Why not simply say.
var q = from pd in PlanDetails
select new {
pd.PlanDetailID,
ThePlanName = pd.Plan.PlanName
};
Of course i'm assuming that every PlanDetail will belong to a Plan.
Update
To get better results from LinqPad you could tell it to use your own assembly (which contains your DbContext) instead of the default Datacontext it uses.

Linq to Entities query non primitive type

I have this method I wrote as:
private void GetReceivedInvoiceTasks(User user, List<Task> tasks)
{
var taskList = from i in _db.Invoices
join a in user.Areas on i.AreaId equals a.AreaId
where i.Status == InvoiceStatuses.Received
select i;
}
Basically I was trying to get all the Invoices in the database in the user's area that have a status of received. I don't understand LINQ too well right now.
I'm getting the error:
base {System.SystemException} = {"Unable to create a constant value of
type 'Models.Area'. Only primitive types ('such as Int32, String, and
Guid') are supported in this context."}
Can someone please explain to me what I'm doing wrong and how to remedy this? I can't currently understand what the problem is. If I take the join line out it's fine but I really need that line to make sure I only have invoices from the users area/areas (they can belong to more than one area). Have I got something fundamentally wrong with this query?
Entity framework does not support joins with in-memory collections. You will have to re-wire your query to make use of a Contains query with a collection of primitives instead.
Also EF currently does not support enum values so you will have to compare with an integer value (If InvoiceStatuses.Received is not an enum value ignore this part).
Both fixes combined lead to the following query approach which should result in results equivalent to your join:
int statusReceived = (int)InvoiceStatuses.Received;
var areaIds = user.Areas.Select(x=> x.AreaId).ToArray();
var taskList = from i in _db.Invoices
where i.Status == statusReceived && areaIds.Contains(i.AreaId)
select i;

NHibernate IQueryable doesn't seem to delay execution

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)

Linq Contains issue: cannot formulate the equivalent of 'WHERE IN' query

In the table ReservationWorkerPeriods there are records of all workers that are planned to work on a given period on any possible machine.
The additional table WorkerOnMachineOnConstructionSite contains columns workerId, MachineId and ConstructionSiteId.
From the table ReservationWorkerPeriods I would like to retrieve just workers who work on selected machine.
In order to retrieve just relevant records from WorkerOnMachineOnConstructionSite table I have written the following code:
var relevantWorkerOnMachineOnConstructionSite = (from cswm in currentConstructionSiteSchedule.ContrustionSiteWorkerOnMachine
where cswm.MachineId == machineId
select cswm).ToList();
workerOnMachineOnConstructionSite = relevantWorkerOnMachineOnConstructionSite as List<ContrustionSiteWorkerOnMachine>;
These records are also used in the application so I don't want to bypass the above code even if is possible to directly retrieve just workerPeriods for workers who work on selected machine. Anyway I haven't figured out how it is possible to retrieve the relevant workerPeriods once we know which userIDs are relevant.
I have tried the following code:
var userIDs = from w in workerOnMachineOnConstructionSite select new {w.WorkerId};
List<ReservationWorkerPeriods> workerPeriods = currentConstructionSiteSchedule.ReservationWorkerPeriods.ToList();
allocatedWorkers = workerPeriods.Where(wp => userIDs.Contains(wp.WorkerId));
but it seems to be incorrect and don't know how to fix it. Does anyone know what is the problem and how it is possible to retrieve just records which contain userIDs from the list?
Currently, you are constructing an anonymous object on the fly, with one property. You'll want to grab the id directly with (note the missing curly braces):
var userIDs = from w in workerOnMachineOnConstructionSite select w.WorkerId;
Also, in such cases, don't call ToList on it - the variable userIDs just contains the query, not the result. If you use that variable in a further query, the provider can translate it to a single sql query.

DynamicObject LINQ query does't works with custom class!

DynamicObject LINQ query with the List compiles fine:
List<string> list = new List<string>();
var query = (from dynamic d in list where d.FirstName == "John" select d);
With our own custom class that we use for the "usual" LINQ compiler reports the error "An expression tree may not contain a dynamic
operation":
DBclass db = new DBclass();
var query = (from dynamic d in db where d.FirstName == "John" select d);
What shall we add to handle DynamicObject LINQ?
Does DBClass implement IEnumerable? Perhaps there is a method on it you should be calling to return an IEnumerable collection?
You could add a type, against which to write the query.
I believe your problem is, that in the first expression, where you are using the List<>, everything is done in memory using IEnumerable & Link-to-Objects.
Apparently, your DBClass is an IQueryable using Linq-to-SQL. IQueryables use an expression tree to build an SQL statement to send to the database.
In other words, despite looking much alike, the two statements are doing radically different things, one of which is allowed & one which isn't. (Much in the way var y = x * 5; will either succeed or fail depending on if x is an int or a string).
Further, your first example may compile, but as far as I can tell, it will fail when you run it. That's not a particular good benchmark for success.
The only way I see this working is if the query using dynamic is made on IEnumerables using Link-to-Objects. (Load the full table into a List, and then query on the list)

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