Linq to Sql multiple outer joins - c#

Thanks in advance for any help.
Not an expert in Linq to Sql by any means.
I have 4 tables.
The main lb_item table which defines, unsurprisingly, an item.
Many fields but holds 3 ID fields.
itemID (key)
categoryID (not null)
patternID (can be null)
lb_pattern table which is keyed off the lb_item patternID.
lb_category table which is keyed off the lb_item categoryID.
lb_animal table which is keyed off the lb_item item ID.
So I need a select from the lb_item table joining to these other 3 tables to bring back varchar fields as I'm building a DTO.
A single left outer join works fine thus:
from lbi in lbContext.lb_item
join lbp in lbContext.lb_pattern on lbi.patternID equals lbp.patternID into g1
from j1 in g1.DefaultIfEmpty()
join lbc in lbContext.lb_category on lbi.categoryID equals lbc.categoryID
where lbi.itemID == id
select new lb_itemDTO..........
I now need to add a 2nd left outer join for the lb_animal table.
So I started to do this:
from lbi in lbContext.lb_item
join lbp in lbContext.lb_pattern on lbi.patternID equals lbp.patternID into g1
from j1 in g1.DefaultIfEmpty()
join lba in lbContext.lb_animal on j1.
But the options in VS for j1 give me only the fields within the lb_pattern table.
I need the join to read:
join lba in lbContext.lb_animal on j1.itemID equals lba.itemID
or
join lba in lbContext.lb_animal on lbi.itemID equals lba.itemID
Neither works and gives me an exception along the lines of "'NavigationExpandingExpressionVisitor' failed. This may indicate either a bug or a limitation in EF Core".
So how can I add a left outer join to the lb_animal table?
I've spent the last hour looking at various SO posts to suss it out but I just cannot seem to get my head around the solution for some reason. Feel like a newbie. And I'm sure the solution is going to be obvious!
Any help or pointers to a solution would be much appreciated.

This should work:
var ans = from lbi in lbContext.lb_item
where lbi.itemID == id
join lbp in lbContext.lb_pattern on lbi.patternID equals lbp.patternID into lbpj
from lbp in lbpj.DefaultIfEmpty()
join lba in lbContext.lb_animal on lbi.itemID equals lba.itemID into lbaj
from lba in lbaj.DefaultIfEmpty()
join lbc in lbContext.lb_category on lbi.categoryID equals lbc.categoryID
select new {
};

Persvered and finally came across a SO post which approached it in a different way and it worked.
Original SO is here:
My working code is now thus:
from lbi in lbContext.lb_item
from lbc in lbContext.lb_category
.Where(c => c.categoryID == lbi.categoryID)
from lbp in lbContext.lb_pattern
.Where(p => p.patternID == lbi.patternID)
.DefaultIfEmpty()
from lba in lbContext.lb_animal
.Where(a => a.itemID == lbi.itemID)
.DefaultIfEmpty()
where lbi.itemID == id
select new lb_itemDTO
Would still be interested in comments on this solution as it's not breaking the outer joins into grouped segments. So is this solution I found any less efficient in terms of the SQL it generates compared to how I was originally proposing to do it?

Related

Making joins in Entity Framework with not mapped tables

I need help: I need to make a join with 3 tables, but one of it was not mapped by Entity Framework because is just a relational table the join I need is something like that:
select *
from Promocao p
join ProdutoPromocao as pp on pp.PromocaoId = p.IdPromocao
join Produto as pr on pp.ProdutoId = pr.IdProduto
join Boteco as b on pr.botecoId = b.IdBoteco
where b.IdBoteco = 1
but the table ProdutoPromocao was not mapped, how can I do this with Entity Framework?
I thought about something like:
(from pr in db.Promocao
join p in db.Produto on (pr.Produto.Select(x=>x.IdProduto)) equals p.IdProduto //this line is not working, I would need something like pr.Produto.IdProduto but it does not offer me this alternative
join b in db.Boteco on p.BotecoId equals b.IdBoteco
where b.IdBoteco == idBoteco
select pr
).ToList();
Someone please help me.
You can try as shown below.
(from pr in db.Promocao
join p in db.Produto on (pr.Produto.Select(x=>x.IdProduto).FirstOrDefault()) equals p.IdProduto
join b in db.Boteco on p.BotecoId equals b.IdBoteco
where b.IdBoteco == idBoteco
select pr
).ToList();
When working with EF, there is no need to (and in some cases like this you can't) use manual joins. Once you have navigation properties, all you need is to use them (like if they were objects) and EF will generate the necessary joins for you.
Your query should be something like this:
from pr in db.Promocao
from p in pr.Produto
let b = p.Boteco
... (the rest)

a simple SQL join in LINQ not working

Consider these 2 classes.
class OrderDetail {int Specifier;}
class Order
{
OrderDetail[] Details;
}
Now I have a List I want to enumerate over, selecting only the objects with a Specifier of 1. As this is easy in SQL I thought LINQ with a join would be good for this but I dont know how to build the query.
from o in orders join o in o.Details on o.Id equals od.Id where od.Specifier = 1 select od
This gives an error that 'o' does not exist in the current context after join.
What am I doing wrong here?
orders.SelectMany(o => o.Details.Where(od => od.Specifier == 1))
In your query you are using same sequence variable name o for details, you should use join od in o.Details. But join is not needed here, because order already contains details:
from o in orderes
from od in o.Details
where od.Specifier == 1
select od

Linq to Entities Joins

I have a question about joins when using Linq to Entities. According to the documentation the use on the join without a qualifier performs like a left outer join. However when I execute the code below, I get a count returned of zero. But if I comment out the three join lines I get a count of 1. That would indicate that the join are acting as inner join. I have two questions. One which is right inner or outer as the default? Second how do I do the other one i.e. inner or outer? The key words on inner and outer do not work.
var nprs = (from n in db.FMCSA_NPR
join u in db.FMCSA_USER on n.CREATED_BY equals u.ID
join t in db.LKUP_NPR_TYPE on n.NPR_TYPE_ID equals t.ID
join s in db.LKUP_AUDIT_STATUS on n.NPR_STATUS_ID equals s.ID
where n.ROLE_ID == pRoleId
&& n.OWNER_ID == pOwnerId
&& n.NPR_STATUS_ID == pNPRStatusId
&& n.ACTIVE == pActive
select n).ToList();
if (nprs.Count() == 0)
return null;
joins without keys operate like inner joins. I can't find it in the documentation at the moment, but I'll post an edit when I do. However, to perform a left outer join, here is a sample from 101 LINQ Samples: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vcsharp/ee908647#leftouterjoin
Joins in LINQ are inner by default. To do an outer join, you have to either do a manual "if-null-then" or write your own custom join operation.
Left-outer example with manual if-null:
var query = from person in people
join pet in pets on person equals pet.Owner into gj //inner
from subpet in gj.DefaultIfEmpty()
select new { person.FirstName, PetName = (subpet == null ? String.Empty : subpet.Name) }; //left outer
How to: Perform Left Outer Joins
How to: Perform Custom Join Operations

C# Linq eqiuvalent of SQL Count()

I have a fairly complicated join query that I use with my database. Upon running it I end up with results that contain an baseID and a bunch of other fields. I then want to take this baseID and determine how many times it occurs in a table like this:
TableToBeCounted (Many to Many)
{
baseID,
childID
}
How do I perform a linq query that still uses the query I already have and then JOINs the count() with the baseID?
Something like this in untested linq code:
from k in db.Kingdom
join p in db.Phylum on k.KingdomID equals p.KingdomID
where p.PhylumID == "Something"
join c in db.Class on p.PhylumID equals c.PhylumID
select new {c.ClassID, c.Name};
I then want to take that code and count how many orders are nested within each class. I then want to append a column using linq so that my final select looks like this:
select new {c.ClassID, c.Name, o.Count()}//Or something like that.
The entire example is based upon the Biological Classification system.
Update:
Assume for the example that I have multiple tables:
Kingdom
|--Phylum
|--Class
|--Order
Each Phylum has a Phylum ID and a Kingdom ID. Meaning that all phylum are a subset of a kingdom. All Orders are subsets of a Class ID. I want to count how many Orders below to each class.
I hope this is clear now.
Normally this is done with a group. For example:
from k in db.Kingdom
join p in db.Phylum on k.KingdomID equals p.KingdomID
where p.PhylumID == "Something"
join c in db.Class on p.PhylumID equals c.PhylumID
group c by new { c.ClassID, c.Name } into g
select new { Count = g.Count(), g.Key.ClassID, g.Key.Name };
That will basically count how many entries you have for each ClassID/Name pair. However, as Winston says in the comments, you're possibly interested in another table (Order) that you haven't told us about. We can't really give much more information until we know what you're doing here. Do you already have a relationship set up for this in LINQ to SQL? Please tell us about the Order table and how it relates to your other tables.
EDIT: Okay, with the modified question, I suspect we can ignore phylum and kingdom completely, unless I'm missing something. (I also can't see how this relates to a many-to-many mapping...)
I think this would work:
from o in db.Order
group o by o.ClassID into g
join c in db.Class on g.Key.ClassID equals c.ClassID
select new { c.ClassID, c.Name, g.Count() };

Left join in Linq?

There are a lot of questions on SO already about Left joins in Linq, and the ones I've looked at all use the join keyword to achieve the desired end.
This does not make sense to me. Let's say I have the tables Customer and Invoice, linked by a foreign key CustomerID on Invoice. Now I want to run a report containing customer info, plus any invoices. SQL would be:
select c.*, i.*
from Customer c
left join Invoice i on c.ID = i.CustomerID
From what I've seen of the answers on SO, people are mostly suggesting:
var q = from c in Customers
join i in Invoices.DefaultIfEmpty() on c.ID equals i.CustomerID
select new { c, i };
I really don't understand how this can be the only way. The relationship between Customer and Invoice is already defined by the LinqToSQL classes; why should I have to repeat it for the join clause? If I wanted an inner join it would simply have been:
var q = from c in Customers
from i in c.Invoices
select new { c, i };
without specifying the joined fields!
I tried:
var q = from c in Customers
from i in c.Invoices.DefaultIfEmpty()
select new { c, i };
but that just gave me the same result as if it were an inner join.
Is there not a better way of doing this?
While the relationship is already defined (both in the database and in the .dbml markup) the runtime cannot automatically determine if it should use that relationship.
What if there are two relationships in the object model (Person has Parents and Children, both relationships to other Person instances). While cases could be special cased, this would make the system more complex (so more bugs). Remember in SQL you would repeat the specification of the relationship.
Remember indexes and keys are an implementation detail and not part of the relational algebra that underlies the relation model.
If you want a LEFT OUTER JOIN then you need to use "into":
from c in Customers
join i in Invoices on i.CustomerId equals c.CustomerId into inv
...
and inv will have type IEnumerable<Invoivce>, possibly with no instances.
What are you talking about? That from i in c.Invoice.DefaultIfEmpty() is exactly a left join.
List<string> strings = new List<string>() { "Foo", "" };
var q = from s in strings
from c in s.DefaultIfEmpty()
select new { s, c };
foreach (var x in q)
{
Console.WriteLine("ValueOfStringIs|{0}| ValueOfCharIs|{1}|",
x.s,
(int)x.c);
}
This test produces:
ValueOfStringIs|Foo| ValueOfCharIs|70|
ValueOfStringIs|Foo| ValueOfCharIs|111|
ValueOfStringIs|Foo| ValueOfCharIs|111|
ValueOfStringIs|| ValueOfCharIs|0|
You may probably want to use the 'into' keyword.
Example

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