given a list of ids, I can query all relevant rows by:
context.Table.Where(q => listOfIds.Contains(q.Id));
But how do you achieve the same functionality when the Table has a composite key?
This is a nasty problem for which I don't know any elegant solution.
Suppose you have these key combinations, and you only want to select the marked ones (*).
Id1 Id2
--- ---
1 2 *
1 3
1 6
2 2 *
2 3 *
... (many more)
How to do this is a way that Entity Framework is happy? Let's look at some possible solutions and see if they're any good.
Solution 1: Join (or Contains) with pairs
The best solution would be to create a list of the pairs you want, for instance Tuples, (List<Tuple<int,int>>) and join the database data with this list:
from entity in db.Table // db is a DbContext
join pair in Tuples on new { entity.Id1, entity.Id2 }
equals new { Id1 = pair.Item1, Id2 = pair.Item2 }
select entity
In LINQ to objects this would be perfect, but, too bad, EF will throw an exception like
Unable to create a constant value of type 'System.Tuple`2 (...) Only primitive types or enumeration types are supported in this context.
which is a rather clumsy way to tell you that it can't translate this statement into SQL, because Tuples is not a list of primitive values (like int or string). For the same reason a similar statement using Contains (or any other LINQ statement) would fail.
Solution 2: In-memory
Of course we could turn the problem into simple LINQ to objects like so:
from entity in db.Table.AsEnumerable() // fetch db.Table into memory first
join pair Tuples on new { entity.Id1, entity.Id2 }
equals new { Id1 = pair.Item1, Id2 = pair.Item2 }
select entity
Needless to say that this is not a good solution. db.Table could contain millions of records.
Solution 3: Two Contains statements (incorrect)
So let's offer EF two lists of primitive values, [1,2] for Id1 and [2,3] for Id2. We don't want to use join, so let's use Contains:
from entity in db.Table
where ids1.Contains(entity.Id1) && ids2.Contains(entity.Id2)
select entity
But now the results also contains entity {1,3}! Well, of course, this entity perfectly matches the two predicates. But let's keep in mind that we're getting closer. In stead of pulling millions of entities into memory, we now only get four of them.
Solution 4: One Contains with computed values
Solution 3 failed because the two separate Contains statements don't only filter the combinations of their values. What if we create a list of combinations first and try to match these combinations? We know from solution 1 that this list should contain primitive values. For instance:
var computed = ids1.Zip(ids2, (i1,i2) => i1 * i2); // [2,6]
and the LINQ statement:
from entity in db.Table
where computed.Contains(entity.Id1 * entity.Id2)
select entity
There are some problems with this approach. First, you'll see that this also returns entity {1,6}. The combination function (a*b) does not produce values that uniquely identify a pair in the database. Now we could create a list of strings like ["Id1=1,Id2=2","Id1=2,Id2=3]" and do
from entity in db.Table
where computed.Contains("Id1=" + entity.Id1 + "," + "Id2=" + entity.Id2)
select entity
(This would work in EF6, not in earlier versions).
This is getting pretty messy. But a more important problem is that this solution is not sargable, which means: it bypasses any database indexes on Id1 and Id2 that could have been used otherwise. This will perform very very poorly.
Solution 5: Best of 2 and 3
So the most viable solution I can think of is a combination of Contains and a join in memory: First do the contains statement as in solution 3. Remember, it got us very close to what we wanted. Then refine the query result by joining the result as an in-memory list:
var rawSelection = from entity in db.Table
where ids1.Contains(entity.Id1) && ids2.Contains(entity.Id2)
select entity;
var refined = from entity in rawSelection.AsEnumerable()
join pair in Tuples on new { entity.Id1, entity.Id2 }
equals new { Id1 = pair.Item1, Id2 = pair.Item2 }
select entity;
It's not elegant, messy all the same maybe, but so far it's the only scalable1 solution to this problem I found, and applied in my own code.
Solution 6: Build a query with OR clauses
Using a Predicate builder like Linqkit or alternatives, you can build a query that contains an OR clause for each element in the list of combinations. This could be a viable option for really short lists. With a couple of hundreds of elements, the query will start performing very poorly. So I don't consider this a good solution unless you can be 100% sure that there will always be a small number of elements. One elaboration of this option can be found here.
Solution 7: Unions
There's also a solution using UNIONs that I posted later here.
1As far as the Contains statement is scalable: Scalable Contains method for LINQ against a SQL backend
Solution for Entity Framework Core with SQL Server
🎉 NEW! QueryableValues EF6 Edition has arrived!
The following solution makes use of QueryableValues. This is a library that I wrote to primarily solve the problem of query plan cache pollution in SQL Server caused by queries that compose local values using the Contains LINQ method. It also allows you to compose values of complex types in your queries in a performant way, which will achieve what's being asked in this question.
First you will need to install and set up the library, after doing that you can use any of the following patterns that will allow you to query your entities using a composite key:
// Required to make the AsQueryableValues method available on the DbContext.
using BlazarTech.QueryableValues;
// Local data that will be used to query by the composite key
// of the fictitious OrderProduct table.
var values = new[]
{
new { OrderId = 1, ProductId = 10 },
new { OrderId = 2, ProductId = 20 },
new { OrderId = 3, ProductId = 30 }
};
// Optional helper variable (needed by the second example due to CS0854)
var queryableValues = dbContext.AsQueryableValues(values);
// Example 1 - Using a Join (preferred).
var example1Results = dbContext
.OrderProduct
.Join(
queryableValues,
e => new { e.OrderId, e.ProductId },
v => new { v.OrderId, v.ProductId },
(e, v) => e
)
.ToList();
// Example 2 - Using Any (similar behavior as Contains).
var example2Results = dbContext
.OrderProduct
.Where(e => queryableValues
.Where(v =>
v.OrderId == e.OrderId &&
v.ProductId == e.ProductId
)
.Any()
)
.ToList();
Useful Links
Nuget Package
GitHub Repository
Benchmarks
QueryableValues is distributed under the MIT license.
You can use Union for each composite primary key:
var compositeKeys = new List<CK>
{
new CK { id1 = 1, id2 = 2 },
new CK { id1 = 1, id2 = 3 },
new CK { id1 = 2, id2 = 4 }
};
IQuerable<CK> query = null;
foreach(var ck in compositeKeys)
{
var temp = context.Table.Where(x => x.id1 == ck.id1 && x.id2 == ck.id2);
query = query == null ? temp : query.Union(temp);
}
var result = query.ToList();
You can create a collection of strings with both keys like this (I am assuming that your keys are int type):
var id1id2Strings = listOfIds.Select(p => p.Id1+ "-" + p.Id2);
Then you can just use "Contains" on your db:
using (dbEntities context = new dbEntities())
{
var rec = await context.Table1.Where(entity => id1id2Strings .Contains(entity.Id1+ "-" + entity.Id2));
return rec.ToList();
}
You need a set of objects representing the keys you want to query.
class Key
{
int Id1 {get;set;}
int Id2 {get;set;}
If you have two lists and you simply check that each value appears in their respective list then you are getting the cartesian product of the lists - which is likely not what you want. Instead you need to query the specific combinations required
List<Key> keys = // get keys;
context.Table.Where(q => keys.Any(k => k.Id1 == q.Id1 && k.Id2 == q.Id2));
I'm not completely sure that this is valid use of Entity Framework; you may have issues with sending the Key type to the database. If that happens then you can be creative:
var composites = keys.Select(k => p1 * k.Id1 + p2 * k.Id2).ToList();
context.Table.Where(q => composites.Contains(p1 * q.Id1 + p2 * q.Id2));
You can create an isomorphic function (prime numbers are good for this), something like a hashcode, which you can use to compare the pair of values. As long as the multiplicative factors are co-prime this pattern will be isomorphic (one-to-one) - i.e. the result of p1*Id1 + p2*Id2 will uniquely identify the values of Id1 and Id2 as long as the prime numbers are correctly chosen.
But then you end up in a situation where you're implementing complex concepts and someone is going to have to support this. Probably better to write a stored procedure which takes the valid key objects.
Ran into this issue as well and needed a solution that both did not perform a table scan and also provided exact matches.
This can be achieved by combining Solution 3 and Solution 4 from Gert Arnold's Answer
var firstIds = results.Select(r => r.FirstId);
var secondIds = results.Select(r => r.SecondId);
var compositeIds = results.Select(r => $"{r.FirstId}:{r.SecondId}");
var query = from e in dbContext.Table
//first check the indexes to avoid a table scan
where firstIds.Contains(e.FirstId) && secondIds.Contains(e.SecondId))
//then compare the compositeId for an exact match
//ToString() must be called unless using EF Core 5+
where compositeIds.Contains(e.FirstId.ToString() + ":" + e.SecondId.ToString()))
select e;
var entities = await query.ToListAsync();
For EF Core I use a slightly modified version of the bucketized IN method by EricEJ to map composite keys as tuples. It performs pretty well for small sets of data.
Sample usage
List<(int Id, int Id2)> listOfIds = ...
context.Table.In(listOfIds, q => q.Id, q => q.Id2);
Implementation
public static IQueryable<TQuery> In<TKey1, TKey2, TQuery>(
this IQueryable<TQuery> queryable,
IEnumerable<(TKey1, TKey2)> values,
Expression<Func<TQuery, TKey1>> key1Selector,
Expression<Func<TQuery, TKey2>> key2Selector)
{
if (values is null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(values));
}
if (key1Selector is null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(key1Selector));
}
if (key2Selector is null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(key2Selector));
}
if (!values.Any())
{
return queryable.Take(0);
}
var distinctValues = Bucketize(values);
if (distinctValues.Length > 1024)
{
throw new ArgumentException("Too many parameters for SQL Server, reduce the number of parameters", nameof(values));
}
var predicates = distinctValues
.Select(v =>
{
// Create an expression that captures the variable so EF can turn this into a parameterized SQL query
Expression<Func<TKey1>> value1AsExpression = () => v.Item1;
Expression<Func<TKey2>> value2AsExpression = () => v.Item2;
var firstEqual = Expression.Equal(key1Selector.Body, value1AsExpression.Body);
var visitor = new ReplaceParameterVisitor(key2Selector.Parameters[0], key1Selector.Parameters[0]);
var secondEqual = Expression.Equal(visitor.Visit(key2Selector.Body), value2AsExpression.Body);
return Expression.AndAlso(firstEqual, secondEqual);
})
.ToList();
while (predicates.Count > 1)
{
predicates = PairWise(predicates).Select(p => Expression.OrElse(p.Item1, p.Item2)).ToList();
}
var body = predicates.Single();
var clause = Expression.Lambda<Func<TQuery, bool>>(body, key1Selector.Parameters[0]);
return queryable.Where(clause);
}
class ReplaceParameterVisitor : ExpressionVisitor
{
private ParameterExpression _oldParameter;
private ParameterExpression _newParameter;
public ReplaceParameterVisitor(ParameterExpression oldParameter, ParameterExpression newParameter)
{
_oldParameter = oldParameter;
_newParameter = newParameter;
}
protected override Expression VisitParameter(ParameterExpression node)
{
if (ReferenceEquals(node, _oldParameter))
return _newParameter;
return base.VisitParameter(node);
}
}
/// <summary>
/// Break a list of items tuples of pairs.
/// </summary>
private static IEnumerable<(T, T)> PairWise<T>(this IEnumerable<T> source)
{
var sourceEnumerator = source.GetEnumerator();
while (sourceEnumerator.MoveNext())
{
var a = sourceEnumerator.Current;
sourceEnumerator.MoveNext();
var b = sourceEnumerator.Current;
yield return (a, b);
}
}
private static TKey[] Bucketize<TKey>(IEnumerable<TKey> values)
{
var distinctValueList = values.Distinct().ToList();
// Calculate bucket size as 1,2,4,8,16,32,64,...
var bucket = 1;
while (distinctValueList.Count > bucket)
{
bucket *= 2;
}
// Fill all slots.
var lastValue = distinctValueList.Last();
for (var index = distinctValueList.Count; index < bucket; index++)
{
distinctValueList.Add(lastValue);
}
var distinctValues = distinctValueList.ToArray();
return distinctValues;
}
In the absence of a general solution, I think there are two things to consider:
Avoid multi-column primary keys (will make unit testing easier too).
But if you have to, chances are that one of them will reduce the
query result size to O(n) where n is the size of the ideal query
result. From here, its Solution 5 from Gerd Arnold above.
For example, the problem leading me to this question was querying order lines, where the key is order id + order line number + order type, and the source had the order type being implicit. That is, the order type was a constant, order ID would reduce the query set to order lines of relevant orders, and there would usually be 5 or less of these per order.
To rephrase: If you have a composite key, changes are that one of them have very few duplicates. Apply Solution 5 from above with that.
I tried this solution and it worked with me and the output query was perfect without any parameters
using LinqKit; // nuget
var customField_Ids = customFields?.Select(t => new CustomFieldKey { Id = t.Id, TicketId = t.TicketId }).ToList();
var uniqueIds1 = customField_Ids.Select(cf => cf.Id).Distinct().ToList();
var uniqueIds2 = customField_Ids.Select(cf => cf.TicketId).Distinct().ToList();
var predicate = PredicateBuilder.New<CustomFieldKey>(false); //LinqKit
var lambdas = new List<Expression<Func<CustomFieldKey, bool>>>();
foreach (var cfKey in customField_Ids)
{
var id = uniqueIds1.Where(uid => uid == cfKey.Id).Take(1).ToList();
var ticketId = uniqueIds2.Where(uid => uid == cfKey.TicketId).Take(1).ToList();
lambdas.Add(t => id.Contains(t.Id) && ticketId.Contains(t.TicketId));
}
predicate = AggregateExtensions.AggregateBalanced(lambdas.ToArray(), (expr1, expr2) =>
{
var invokedExpr = Expression.Invoke(expr2, expr1.Parameters.Cast<Expression>());
return Expression.Lambda<Func<CustomFieldKey, bool>>
(Expression.OrElse(expr1.Body, invokedExpr), expr1.Parameters);
});
var modifiedCustomField_Ids = repository.GetTable<CustomFieldLocal>()
.Select(cf => new CustomFieldKey() { Id = cf.Id, TicketId = cf.TicketId }).Where(predicate).ToArray();
I ended up writing a helper for this problem that relies on System.Linq.Dynamic.Core;
Its a lot of code and don't have time to refactor at the moment but input / suggestions appreciated.
public static IQueryable<TEntity> WhereIsOneOf<TEntity, TSource>(this IQueryable<TEntity> dbSet,
IEnumerable<TSource> source,
Expression<Func<TEntity, TSource,bool>> predicate) where TEntity : class
{
var (where, pDict) = GetEntityPredicate(predicate, source);
return dbSet.Where(where, pDict);
(string WhereStr, IDictionary<string, object> paramDict) GetEntityPredicate(Expression<Func<TEntity, TSource, bool>> func, IEnumerable<TSource> source)
{
var firstP = func.Parameters[0];
var binaryExpressions = RecurseBinaryExpressions((BinaryExpression)func.Body);
var i = 0;
var paramDict = new Dictionary<string, object>();
var res = new List<string>();
foreach (var sourceItem in source)
{
var innerRes = new List<string>();
foreach (var bExp in binaryExpressions)
{
var emp = ToEMemberPredicate(firstP, bExp);
var val = emp.GetKeyValue(sourceItem);
var pName = $"#{i++}";
paramDict.Add(pName, val);
var str = $"{emp.EntityMemberName} {emp.SQLOperator} {pName}";
innerRes.Add(str);
}
res.Add( "(" + string.Join(" and ", innerRes) + ")");
}
var sRes = string.Join(" || ", res);
return (sRes, paramDict);
}
EMemberPredicate ToEMemberPredicate(ParameterExpression firstP, BinaryExpression bExp)
{
var lMember = (MemberExpression)bExp.Left;
var rMember = (MemberExpression)bExp.Right;
var entityMember = lMember.Expression == firstP ? lMember : rMember;
var keyMember = entityMember == lMember ? rMember : lMember;
return new EMemberPredicate(entityMember, keyMember, bExp.NodeType);
}
List<BinaryExpression> RecurseBinaryExpressions(BinaryExpression e, List<BinaryExpression> runningList = null)
{
if (runningList == null) runningList = new List<BinaryExpression>();
if (e.Left is BinaryExpression lbe)
{
var additions = RecurseBinaryExpressions(lbe);
runningList.AddRange(additions);
}
if (e.Right is BinaryExpression rbe)
{
var additions = RecurseBinaryExpressions(rbe);
runningList.AddRange(additions);
}
if (e.Left is MemberExpression && e.Right is MemberExpression)
{
runningList.Add(e);
}
return runningList;
}
}
Helper class:
public class EMemberPredicate
{
public readonly MemberExpression EntityMember;
public readonly MemberExpression KeyMember;
public readonly PropertyInfo KeyMemberPropInfo;
public readonly string EntityMemberName;
public readonly string SQLOperator;
public EMemberPredicate(MemberExpression entityMember, MemberExpression keyMember, ExpressionType eType)
{
EntityMember = entityMember;
KeyMember = keyMember;
KeyMemberPropInfo = (PropertyInfo)keyMember.Member;
EntityMemberName = entityMember.Member.Name;
SQLOperator = BinaryExpressionToMSSQLOperator(eType);
}
public object GetKeyValue(object o)
{
return KeyMemberPropInfo.GetValue(o, null);
}
private string BinaryExpressionToMSSQLOperator(ExpressionType eType)
{
switch (eType)
{
case ExpressionType.Equal:
return "==";
case ExpressionType.GreaterThan:
return ">";
case ExpressionType.GreaterThanOrEqual:
return ">=";
case ExpressionType.LessThan:
return "<";
case ExpressionType.LessThanOrEqual:
return "<=";
case ExpressionType.NotEqual:
return "<>";
default:
throw new ArgumentException($"{eType} is not a handled Expression Type.");
}
}
}
Use Like so:
// This can be a Tuple or whatever.. If Tuple, then y below would be .Item1, etc.
// This data structure is up to you but is what I use.
[FromBody] List<CustomerAddressPk> cKeys
var res = await dbCtx.CustomerAddress
.WhereIsOneOf(cKeys, (x, y) => y.CustomerId == x.CustomerId
&& x.AddressId == y.AddressId)
.ToListAsync();
Hope this helps others.
in Case of composite key you can use another idlist and add a condition for that in your code
context.Table.Where(q => listOfIds.Contains(q.Id) && listOfIds2.Contains(q.Id2));
or you can use one another trick create a list of your keys by adding them
listofid.add(id+id1+......)
context.Table.Where(q => listOfIds.Contains(q.Id+q.id1+.......));
I tried this on EF Core 5.0.3 with the Postgres provider.
context.Table
.Select(entity => new
{
Entity = entity,
CompositeKey = entity.Id1 + entity.Id2,
})
.Where(x => compositeKeys.Contains(x.CompositeKey))
.Select(x => x.Entity);
This produced SQL like:
SELECT *
FROM table AS t
WHERE t.Id1 + t.Id2 IN (#__compositeKeys_0)),
Caveats
this should only be used where the combination of Id1 and Id2 will always produce a unique result (e.g., they're both UUIDs)
this cannot use indexes, though you could save the composite key to the db with an index
Related
I am new to EF. I have a table with a list of projects. I have found a query in my software that finds all projects .
public Project[] FindAll()
{
var projects = new List<Project>();
using (var db = new ProjetDbConext())
{
var qProjects = from project in db.ProjectSet
where project.CreateDateTime != null
select project;
projects = qProjects.ToList();
}
return projects.ToArray();
}
This seems to be fine , but I am not sure how to parametrize it. I need this because I am implementing a search feature trying to re use some query logic from EF.
This takes a List of tuples . Each tuple basically has an attribute and a list of search terms.
eg. Tuple(FirstName , { Prasaanth ,Bill } ; Tuple( LastName , { Neelakandan , Gates } ;
This means I need to write a select query where I search projects where FirstName is Prasaanth or Bill . If the list has only one term.
eg. Tuple( Company , { Microsoft} ; then i need to search only one where condition in my query.
public Project[] LoadSearchProjects(List<System.Tuple<string, List<string>>> searchTerms)
{
var projects = new List<Project>();
using (var db = new ProjetDbConext())
{
foreach (System.Tuple<string, List<string>> pair in searchTerms)
{
string attribute = pair.Item1;
List<string> terms = pair.Item2;
/// logic here
}
}
return projects.ToArray();
}
I can always write an if condition where I do :
if(attribute.equals("FirstName"){
// query project.FirstName in the where conditon
}
But I have too many attributes to search on.
I know the ADO.NET way of doing this :
mycommands = new SqlCommand(" select projects from from Persons where '"+attibute+"' = some search terms ...
I don't know how to do something like this in my EF query.
1 ) Is there a way EF allows me to do the search on dynamic attributes ? or parametrize using '"+attribute+"' ??
2) Is there a better data structure I could use to simplify my structure instead of using List<Tuple<string, List<string>> ?
3) I was recommend to use 3rd party LINQKit or dynamic linq but am not sure how to integrate that to EF querying.
My apologies if much of this sounds like collegeboy code. Please let me know if any additional details needed.
Regards,
Prasaanth
UPDATE :
Working method as per Andriy's answer. My question here is this doesnt work if any particular entry in my database say Name is Null.
private static Expression<Func<TEntity, bool>> BuildStringFilter<TEntity, TProp>(
Tuple<string, List<string>> filter)
{
// entity is the Project table
var entity = Expression.Parameter(typeof (TEntity));
var prop = Expression.Property(entity, filter.Item1);
//check if contains returns true
var body = filter.Item2
.Select(v => Expression.Equal(Expression.Call(prop,
typeof (String).GetMethod("Contains"),
new Expression[] { Expression.Constant(v) }), Expression.Constant(true)))
.Aggregate(Expression.Or);
var result = (Expression<Func<TEntity, bool>>) Expression.Lambda(body, entity);
return result;
}
Any way I can modify the expression so that the Contains method :
prop,
typeof (String).GetMethod("Contains"),
new Expression[] { Expression.Constant(v)
works if the value of the attribute (prop) is null ?
You can build filter expression using snippet:
public static Expression<Func<TEntity, bool>> BuildFilter<TEntity, TProp>(
KeyValuePair<string, IEnumerable<TProp>> filter)
{
var entity = Expression.Parameter(typeof(TEntity));
var prop = Expression.Property(entity, filter.Key);
var body = filter.Value
.Select(v => Expression.Equal(prop, Expression.Constant(v)))
.Aggregate((curr, next) => Expression.Or(curr, next));
var result = (Expression<Func<TEntity, bool>>)Expression.Lambda(body, entity);
return result;
}
And call it like:
var filter = new KeyValuePair<string, IEnumerable<string>> (
"FirstName",
new [] {"Alice", "Bob"}
);
var predicate = BuildFilter<Item, string>(filter);
var result = ctx.Items.Where(predicate);
Also, see How to: Use Expression Trees to Build Dynamic Queries.
I'm spitballing here, but I think something like this would be simpler:
public Project[] Find(Expression<Func<Project, bool> filter = null)
{
using (var db = new ProjetDbConext())
{
var query = db.ProjectSet.Where(p => p.CreateDateTime != null);
if(filter != null)
query = query.Where(filter);
return query.ToArray();
}
}
Use it like:
var projects = repo.Find(p => p.id > 100);
I have a basic IQueryable,
private static IQueryable<TestObject> GetFilteredQuery(Guid componentId, Guid productId)
{
IQueryable<TestObject> query = from t in ModelQuery.Query<TestObject>()
where t.ComponentId == componentId && t.ProductId == productId
select t;
return query;
}
This is trivial if I have to compare single componentId and productId.
My problem is how can I handle when I have a list of value pairs,
Guid[] componentIds, Guid[] productIds
where, its kind of a keyValue pair.
something like,
private static IQueryable<TestObject> GetFilteredQuery(Guid[] componentIds, Guid[] productIds)
{
IQueryable<TestObject> query = from t in ModelQuery.Query<TestObject>()
where (t.ComponentId must be present in componentIds[] && t.ProductId must be present in productIds)
select t;
return query;
}
Use Contains:
private static IQueryable<TestObject> GetFilteredQuery(Guid[] componentIds, Guid[] productIds)
{
IQueryable<TestObject> query =
from t in ModelQuery.Query<TestObject>()
where (componentIds.Contains(t.ComponentId)
&& productIds.Contains(t.ProductId))
select t;
return query;
}
Edit
AFAIK there is no way Linq2Sql is going to map a sequence of Guid tuples to native Sql (you would likely need an #Table parameter for this)
So here's one approach, viz to run a query the same contains as above, but using OR on the 2 filter lists. Sql will hopefully be able to filter a significant amount of data out at the database level.
The results (candidates) then need to be materialized, and then filtered in memory against the component and product pairs. I've done this by zipping the 2 guid arrays together (assuming similar length - possibly you want to remodel the arrays as an array of Pairs to express the intention more explicitly?)
private static IQueryable<TestObject> GetFilteredQuery(Guid[] componentIds,
Guid[] productIds)
{
var candidates = ModelQuery
.Query<TestObject>()
.Where(componentIds.Contains(
t.ComponentId) || productIds.Contains(t.ProductId))
.ToList();// Need to materialize
var guidPairs = componentIds.Zip(productIds,
(c, p) => new {ComponentId = c, ProductId = p});
return candidates
.Join(guidPairs,
c => new {ComponentId = c.ComponentId, ProductId = c.ProductId},
gp => gp,
(c, gp) => c)
.AsQueryable();
}
Note that the resultant queryable isn't really suitable for further composition, given that it has already been materialized. Also, if you can do additional filtering before hitting this, it would be beneficial. And I'm afraid I haven't actually tested this.
Use Contains:
where componentIds.Contains(t.ComponentId) && productIds.Contains(t.ProductId)
I would like to return a set of entities who has and ID that is contained in a list or array of IDs using LINQ and Data Services. I know how to this using LinqToEF but I am at a loss how to this with Data Services or using OData query conventions for that matter.
My thought is that I would do something like:
int[] intArray = {321456, 321355, 218994, 189232};
var query = (from data in context.Entity
where intArray.contains(data.ID)
select data);
Is there any way to accomplish using Data Services / OData? I know I could probably hack it with a Service Operation but I would prefer not to do that.
Cheers.
Currently OData (the underlying protocol) doesn't support the Contains operation. So that's why the client library does not translate the above query.
People are basically using two ways to overcome this limitation:
1) Use service operations as you noted.
2) Construct a where clause dynamically which uses simple comparisons to compare the value to each item from the array. So if the array contains 1, 2, 3, the where would be data.ID == 1 || data.ID == 2 || data.ID == 3
The #2 solution is nice because it's a client side only change. The downside is, that it only works for small arrays. If the array contains too many items the expression gets too long and that leads to all kinds of troubles.
The #1 solution doesn't have the size problem, but you need to provide the operation on the server.
Here is my realization of WhereIn() Method, to filter IQueryable collection by a set of selected entities:
public static IQueryable<T> WhereIn<T,TProp>(this IQueryable<T> source, Expression<Func<T,TProp>> memberExpr, IEnumerable<TProp> values) where T : class
{
Expression predicate = null;
ParameterExpression param = Expression.Parameter(typeof(T), "t");
bool IsFirst = true;
// Create a comparison for each value eg:
// IN: t => t.Id == 1 | t.Id == 2
MemberExpression me = (MemberExpression) memberExpr.Body;
foreach (TProp val in values)
{
ConstantExpression ce = Expression.Constant(val);
Expression comparison = Expression.Equal(me, ce);
if (IsFirst)
{
predicate = comparison;
IsFirst = false;
}
else
{
predicate = Expression.Or(predicate, comparison);
}
}
return predicate != null
? source.Where(Expression.Lambda<Func<T, bool>>(predicate, param)).AsQueryable<T>()
: source;
}
And calling of this method looks like:
IQueryable<Product> q = context.Products.ToList();
var SelectedProducts = new List<Product>
{
new Product{Id=23},
new Product{Id=56}
};
...
// Collecting set of product id's
var selectedProductsIds = SelectedProducts.Select(p => p.Id).ToList();
// Filtering products
q = q.WhereIn(c => c.Product.Id, selectedProductsIds);
Thank you men you really helped me :) :)
I did it like Vitek Karas said.
1) Download the Dynamic query library
Check this link
No need to read it just download the Dynamic query library
2)Check the project named DynamicQuery. In it you will find a class named Dynamic.cs . Copy It to your project
3)Generate your project( If you are using silverlight an error that say ReaderWriterLock is not found will appear. Don't be affraid. Just comment or delete the lines that make errors( there is just 6 or 7 lines that make errors) )
4) All done you just need now to write your query
Example: ordersContext.CLIENTS.Where(" NUMCLI > 200 || NUMCLI < 20");
All done. If you have to use the 'Contains' method you just to write a method that iterate over your array and return the string that your request will use.
private string MyFilter()
{ string st = "";
foreach(var element in myTab)
{
st = st + "ThePropertyInTheTable =" + element + "||";
}
return st;
}
I hope you understand me and that i helped someone :)
I know there are a lot of examples of this on the web, but I can't seem to get this to work.
Let me try to set this up, I have a list of custom objects that I need to have limited on a range of values.
I have a sort variable that changes based on some action on the UI, and I need to process the object differently based on that.
Here is my object:
MyObject.ID - Just an identifier
MyObject.Cost - The cost of the object.
MyObject.Name - The name of the object.
Now I need to filter this based on a range in the cost, so I will have something similar to this, considering that I could be limiting by Either of my bottom two properties.
var product = from mo in myobject
where mo.Cost <= 10000
or
var product = from mo in myobject
where mo.Name equals strName
Now I have the dynamic linq in my project, but I'm not figuring out how to get it to actually work, as when I do some of the examples I am only getting:
Func<Tsourse>bool> predicate
as an option.
Update:
I am trying to find a solution that helps me Objectify my code, as right now it is a lot of copy and paste for my linq queries.
Update 2:
Is there an obvious performance difference between:
var product = from mo in myobject
... a few joins ...
where mo.Cost <= 10000
and
var product = (from mo in myobject
... a few joins ...)
.AsQueryable()
.Where("Cost > 1000")
Maybe not directly answering your question, but DynamicQuery is unnecessary here. You can write this query as:
public IEnumerable<MyObject> GetMyObjects(int? maxCost, string name)
{
var query = context.MyObjects;
if (maxCost != null)
{
query = query.Where(mo => mo.Cost <= (int)maxCost);
}
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(name))
{
query = query.Where(mo => mo.Name == name);
}
return query;
}
If the conditions are mutually exclusive then just change the second if into an else if.
I use this pattern all the time. What "Dynamic Query" really means is combining pure SQL with Linq; it doesn't really help you that much with generating conditions on the fly.
using System.Linq;
var products = mo.Where(x => x.Name == "xyz");
var products = mo.Where(x => x.Cost <= 1000);
var products = mo.Where(x => x.Name == "xyz" || x.Cost <= 1000);
Read this great post on DLINQ by ScottGu
Dynamic LINQ (Part 1: Using the LINQ Dynamic Query Library)
You would need something like
var product = myobject.Where("Cost <= 10000");
var product = myobject.Where("Name = #0", strName);
If you downloaded the samples you need to find the Dynamic.cs file in the sample. You need to copy this file into your project and then add
using System.Linq.Dynamic; to the class you are trying to use Dynamic Linq in.
EDIT: To answer your edit. Yes, there is of course a performance difference. If you know the variations of filters beforehand then I would suggest writing them out without using DLINQ.
You can create your own Extension Method like so.
public static class FilterExtensions
{
public static IEnumerable<T> AddFilter<T,T1>(this IEnumerable<T> list, Func<T,T1, bool> filter, T1 argument )
{
return list.Where(foo => filter(foo, argument) );
}
}
Then create your filter methods.
public bool FilterById(Foo obj, int id)
{
return obj.id == id;
}
public bool FilterByName(Foo obj, string name)
{
return obj.name == name;
}
Now you can use this on an IEnumerable<Foo> very easily.
List<Foo> foos = new List<Foo>();
foos.Add(new Foo() { id = 1, name = "test" });
foos.Add(new Foo() { id = 1, name = "test1" });
foos.Add(new Foo() { id = 2, name = "test2" });
//Example 1
//get all Foos's by Id == 1
var list1 = foos.AddFilter(FilterById, 1);
//Example 2
//get all Foo's by name == "test1"
var list2 = foos.AddFilter(FilterByName, "test1");
//Example 3
//get all Foo's by Id and Name
var list1 = foos.AddFilter(FilterById, 1).AddFilter(FilterByName, "test1");
Ingredient class:
class Ingredient
{
public String Name { get; set; }
public Double Amount { get; set; }
}
List of Ingredients:
var ingredientsList = new List<Ingredient>();
Database layout of my "Ingredients" table:
[Ingredients] (
[IngredientsID] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
[RecipeID] [int] NOT NULL,
[IngredientsName] [nvarchar](512) NOT NULL,
[IngredientsAmount] [float] NOT NULL
)
Am I able to query my ingredientsList against my "Ingredients" table, doing a where-clause which goes something like this (pseudo code alert!):
SELECT * FROM Ingredients WHERE
IngredientsName = ["Name" property on entities in my ingredientsList] AND
IngredientsAmount <= ["Amount" property on entities in my ingredientsList]
I of course want this to be done with LINQ, and not using dynamically generated SQL queries.
LINQ is composable, but to do this without using UNION you'd have to roll your own Expression. Basically, we (presumably) want to create TSQL of the form:
SELECT *
FROM [table]
WHERE (Name = #name1 AND Amount <= #amount1)
OR (Name = #name2 AND Amount <= #amount2)
OR (Name = #name3 AND Amount <= #amount3)
...
where the name/amount pairs are determined at runtime. There is easy way of phrasing that in LINQ; if it was "AND" each time, we could use .Where(...) repeatedly. Union is a candidate, but I've seen repeated people have problems with that. What we want to do is emulate us writing a LINQ query like:
var qry = from i in db.Ingredients
where ( (i.Name == name1 && i.Amount <= amount1)
|| (i.Name == name2 && i.Amount <= amount2)
... )
select i;
This is done by crafting an Expression, using Expression.OrElse to combine each - so we will need to iterate over our name/amount pairs, making a richer Expression.
Writing Expression code by hand is a bit of a black art, but I have a very similar example up my sleeve (from a presentation I give); it uses some custom extension methods; usage via:
IQueryable query = db.Ingredients.WhereTrueForAny(
localIngredient => dbIngredient =>
dbIngredient.Name == localIngredient.Name
&& dbIngredient.Amount <= localIngredient.Amount
, args);
where args is your array of test ingredients. What this does is: for each localIngredient in args (our local array of test ingredients), it asks us to provide an Expression (for that localIngredient) that is the test to apply at the database. It then combines these (in turn) with Expression.OrElse:
public static IQueryable<TSource> WhereTrueForAny<TSource, TValue>(
this IQueryable<TSource> source,
Func<TValue, Expression<Func<TSource, bool>>> selector,
params TValue[] values)
{
return source.Where(BuildTrueForAny(selector, values));
}
public static Expression<Func<TSource, bool>> BuildTrueForAny<TSource, TValue>(
Func<TValue, Expression<Func<TSource, bool>>> selector,
params TValue[] values)
{
if (selector == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("selector");
if (values == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("values");
// if there are no filters, return nothing
if (values.Length == 0) return x => false;
// if there is 1 filter, use it directly
if (values.Length == 1) return selector(values[0]);
var param = Expression.Parameter(typeof(TSource), "x");
// start with the first filter
Expression body = Expression.Invoke(selector(values[0]), param);
for (int i = 1; i < values.Length; i++)
{ // for 2nd, 3rd, etc - use OrElse for that filter
body = Expression.OrElse(body,
Expression.Invoke(selector(values[i]), param));
}
return Expression.Lambda<Func<TSource, bool>>(body, param);
}
The only extent to which you can use a local collection in a LINQ 2 SQL query is with the Contains() function, which is basically a translation to the SQL in clause. For example...
var ingredientsList = new List<Ingredient>();
... add your ingredients
var myQuery = (from ingredient in context.Ingredients where ingredientsList.Select(i => i.Name).Contains(ingredient.Name) select ingredient);
This would generate SQL equivalent to "...where ingredients.Name in (...)"
Unfortunately I don't think that's going to work for you, as you'd have to join each column atomically.
And just as an aside, using LINQ 2 SQL is a dynamically generated SQL query.
You could, of course, do the joining on the client side, but that would require bringing back the entire Ingredients table, which could be performance-prohibitive, and is definitely bad practice.
I think you'll either have to use multiple queries, or copy your ingredients list into a temporary table and do the database query in that way.
I mean, you could have a SQL statement of:
SELECT * FROM Ingredients WHERE
(IngredientsName = 'Flour' AND IngredientsAmount < 10) OR
(IngredientsName = 'Water' AND IngredientsAmount <= 5) OR
(IngredientsName = 'Eggs' AND IngredientsAmount <= 20)
but it get ugly pretty quickly.
Personally I suspect that the temporary table solution is going to be the neatest - but I don't know whether LINQ to SQL has much support for them.
List<string> ingredientNames = ingredientsList
.Select( i => i.Name).ToList();
Dictionary<string, Double> ingredientValues = ingredientsList
.ToDictionary(i => i.Name, i => i.Amount);
//database hit
List<Ingredient> queryResults = db.Ingredients
.Where(i => ingredientNames.Contains(i.Name))
.ToList();
//continue filtering locally - TODO: handle case-sensitivity
List<Ingredient> filteredResults = queryResults
.Where(i => i.Amount <= ingredientValues[i.Name])
.ToList();
I was messing around with this solution in LINQPad, if you have it, you can see the dump outputs. Not sure if it is what you need, but from what I understand it is. I used it against my Users table, but you could replaced that for Ingredients and "UserList" for "IngredientList" and "Username" for "Ingredient Name". You can add further "OR" filtering expressions inside the if statement. It is important you set an ID though.
So final note the "Dump()" method is specific to LINQPad and is not required.
var userList = new List<User>();
userList.Add(new User() { ID = 1, Username = "goneale" });
userList.Add(new User() { ID = 2, Username = "Test" });
List<int> IDs = new List<int>();
// vv ingredients from db context
IQueryable<User> users = Users;
foreach(var user in userList)
{
if (users.Any(x => x.Username == user.Username))
IDs.Add(user.ID);
}
IDs.Dump();
userList.Dump();
users.Dump();
users = users.Where(x => IDs.Contains(x.ID));
users.Dump();
I am using Union to concatinate results of each subquery:
public static IQueryable<TSource> WhereTrueForAny<TSource, TValue>(this IQueryable<TSource> source, Func<TValue, Expression<Func<TSource, bool>>> selector, params TValue[] values)
{
// code is based on Marc Gravells answer
if (selector == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("selector");
if (values == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("values");
// if there are no filters, return nothing
if (values.Length == 0) return source.Where(x => false);
// if there is 1 filter, use it directly
if (values.Length == 1) return source.Where(selector(values[0]));
var lockingUpArray = values;
var p = lockingUpArray.First();
IQueryable<TSource> query = source.Where(selector(p));
foreach (var param in lockingUpArray.Skip(1))
{
query = query.Union(source.Where(selector(param)));
}
return query;
}