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)
Related
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.
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 am new to LINQ queries and to EF too, I usually work with MySQL and I can't guess how to write really simples queries.
I'd like to select all results from a table. So, I used like this:
ZXContainer db = new ZXContainer();
ViewBag.ZXproperties = db.ZXproperties.All();
But I see that I have to write something inside All(---).
Could someone guide me in how could I do that? And if someone has any good link for references too, I thank so much.
All() is an boolean evaluation performed on all of the elements in a collection (though immediately returns false when it reaches an element where the evaluation is false), for example, you want to make sure that all of said ZXproperties have a certain field set as true:
bool isTrue = db.ZXproperties.All(z => z.SomeFieldName == true);
Which will either make isTrue true or false. LINQ is typically lazy-loading, so if you're calling db.ZXproperties directly, you have access to all of the objects as is, but it isn't quite what you're looking for. You can either load all of the objects at the variable assignment with an .ToList():
ViewBag.ZXproperties = db.ZXproperties.ToList();
or you can use the below expression:
ViewBag.ZXproperties = from s in db.ZXproperties
select s;
Which is really no different than saying:
ViewBag.ZXproperties = db.ZXproperties;
The advantage of .ToList() is that if you are wanting to do multiple calls on this ViewBag.ZXproperties, it will only require the initial database call when it is assigning the variable. Alternatively, if you do any form of queryable action on the data, such as .Where(), you'll have another query performed, which is less than ideal if you already have the data to work with.
To select everything, just skip the .All(...), as ZXproperties allready is a collection.
ZXContainer db = new ZXContainer();
ViewBag.ZXproperties = db.ZXproperties;
You might want (or sometimes even need) to call .ToList() on this collection before use...
You don't use All. Just type
ViewBag.ZXproperties = db.ZXproperties;
or
ViewBag.ZXproperties = db.ZXproperties.ToList();
The All method is used to determine if all items of collection match some condition.
If you just want all of the items, you can just use it directly:
ViewBag.ZXproperties = db.ZXproperties;
If you want this evaluated immediately, you can convert it to a list:
ViewBag.ZXproperties = db.ZXproperties.ToList();
This will force it to be pulled across the wire immediately.
You can use this:
var result = db.ZXproperties.ToList();
For more information on linq see 101 linq sample.
All is some checking on all items and argument in it, called lambda expression.
is it possible to use external function in linq select resault ?
and how to pass param to it?
sub x
Dim q = From a In contex Select New With {.z=z("MYNAME")}
end sub
function z(name as string)
return( name & "Something...")
end function
It depends upon the choosen provider. With normal LINQ over IEnumerable queries (a.k.a. LINQ to Objects) you can do. However, with most LINQ over Expression trees (such as LINQ to SQL, LINQ to Entities, NHibernate, LLBLGen, etc, etc) you can't. Those providers convert an expression tree to some other language, such as SQL, AD, SharePoint, etc, etc. They just don't know what to do with your custom method.
You can solve this in several ways. For instance, try to write the code of the method inline in the query. This way the provider knows what to do with it. Another option is to let the method call outside of the expression tree. For instance (sorry my C#):
var q = (from a in context select a).AsEnumerable();
// q is an IEnumerable and the z method will be called by .NET instead
// of being translated to SQL.
var q2 = (from a in q select new { z = z("MYNAME") };
That has been answered and explained here at StackOverflow. Please have a look.
And the complete explanation of what you are trying to do can be found here.
I have this query:
var iterator = criteria.binaryAssetBranchNodeIds.GetEnumerator();
iterator.MoveNext();
var binaryAssetStructures = from bas in db.BinaryAssetStructures
where bas.BinaryAssetStructureId == iterator.Current
select bas;
When I iterate over the binaryAssetStructureIds with a foreach loop no problems occur. When I try this
var binaryAssetStructure = binaryAssetStructures.ElementAt(0);
I get following error:
Unable to cast object of type 'System.Linq.Expressions.MethodCallExpression' to type 'SubSonic.Linq.Structure.ProjectionExpression'
First() for example does work... What am I missing here...
I don't know SubSonic at all, but FWIW a similar issue exists with the Entity Framework. In that case it boils down to the fact that there's no direct translation of ElementAt to SQL.
First() can be easily translated to SELECT TOP 1 FROM ... ORDER BY ..., but the same is not easily expressed for ElementAt.
You could argue that e.g. ElementAt(5) should be translated to SELECT TOP 5 FROM ... ORDER BY ... and then the first four elements simply discarded, but that doesn't work very well if you ask for ElementAt(100000).
In EF, you can partialle overcome this issue forcing the expression to be evaluated first, which can be done with calls to AsEnumerable, ToList or ToArray.
For example
var binaryAssetStructure = binaryAssetStructures.AsEnumerable().ElementAt(0);
I hope this helps although not explicitly directed at SubSonic.