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Linq to get data from a table but not if in another table?

Because of a poor design on our database I have to write a complex query to get my data.
I need to get all valid data from a table_1. In other works I need to get each valid row of my table_1. I don't have a simple valid or invalid column in my table_1. This information is stored in a table_2. Table_2 contains all invalid row with the error message.
Let say the data I need to retrieve are orders. For my example notice that OrderNo is the number of an order. So I can have multiple line, version, of this order in table_1 and I can also have multiple line of error on this order in table_2. So I will also have to use a version number.
I already tried this:
table_1.Where(y => (y.OrderNo == "1234"));
table_2.Where(y => (y.OrderNo == "1234")).Select(y => y.Version).Distinct();
And I think I need to do something like this:
var errorList = table_2.Where(y => (y.OrderNo == "1234")).Select(y => y.Version).Distinct();
table_1.Where(y => (y.OrderNo == "1234" && y.Version.NOT_IN(erriList)));
Could you help me?

I suppose you are searching for Contains function with ! symbol (logical negation operator). Like this:
var errorList = table_2.Where(y => y.OrderNo == "1234")
.Select(y => y.Version);
var res = table_1.Where(y => y.OrderNo == "1234"
//here you get only rows that doesn't represent in errorList
&& !errorList.Contains(y.Version));

to get data from a table but not if in another table
This is called antijoin. While you can use Contains and Any based approaches presented in the other answers, usually you'll get the best performance by using the classic SQL approach - LEFT OUTER JOIN combined with checking the right side for NULL.
Which in LINQ looks like this:
var query =
from t1 in table_1
//where t1.OrderNo == "1234"
join t2 in table_2 on t1.OrderNo equals t2.OrderNo into t2group
from t2 in t2group.DefaultIfEmpty()
where t2 == null
select t1;
Actually when you use OrderNo filter, most probably there will not be a noticeable speed difference between this and other queries. The main benefit of the above would be if you remove that filter, although many nowadays SQL query optimizers are able to derive one and the same execution plan regardless of whether the query uses JOIN / IN / EXISTS constructs.

How about this:
var validRows = table1
.Where(t1 => !table2
.Any(t2 => t1.OrderNo == t2.OrderNo &&
t1.Version == t2.Version));
Note that this is far more efficient in SQL unless you're using something fancy that translates the expression to SQL.

C# LINQ .Contains returns empty?

For a school project I need to filter students who have signed up for multiple courses at the same timeblock. Instead of querying the DB via procedures/views I want to use LINQ to filter it in memory for learning purposes.
Everything seems alright according to the debugger however the result of my linq query is 0 and I can't figure out how.
Here's the code:
foreach (Timeblock tb in ctx.Timeblocks)
{
List<Student> doublestudents = new List<Student>();
//Get the schedules matching the timeblock.
Schedule[] schedules = (from sched in ctx.Schedules
where sched.Timeblock.Id == tb.Id
select sched).ToArray();
/\/\/\Gives me 2 schedules matching that timeblock.
if (schedules.Count() > 1)
{
doublestudents = (from s in ctx.Students
where s.Courses.Contains(schedules[0].Course) && s.Courses.Contains(schedules[1].Course)
select s).ToList();
Console.WriteLine(doublestudents.Count); <<< count results in 0 students.
}
}
While debugging it seems everything should work alright.
Each student has a List and each Course hsa a List
schedules[0].Course has Id 1
schedules[0].Course has Id 6
The student with Id 14 has both these courses in it's list.
Still the linq query does not return this student. Can this be because it's not the same reference of course it wont find a match at the .Contains()?
It's driving me totally crazy since every way I try this it wont return any results while there are matches...

You are comparing on Course which is a reference type. This means the objects are pointing to locations in memory rather than the actual values of the Course object itself, so you will never get a match because the courses of the student and the courses from the timeblock query are all held in different areas of memory.
You should instead use a value type for the comparison, like the course ID. Value types are the actual data itself so using something like int (for integer) will let the actual numerical values be compared. Two different int variables set to the same number will result in an equality.
You can also revise the comparison to accept any number of courses instead of just two so that it's much more flexible to use.
if (schedules.Count() > 1)
{
var scheduleCourseIds = schedules.Select(sch => sch.Course.Id).ToList();
doublestudents = (from s in ctx.Students
let studentCourseIds = s.Courses.Select(c => c.Id)
where !scheduleCourseIds.Except(studentCourseIds).Any()
select s).ToList();
Console.WriteLine(doublestudents.Count);
}
Some notes:
Compare the Course IDs (assuming these are unique and what you use to match them in the database) so that you're comparing value types and will get a match.
Use the let keyword in Linq to create temporary variables you can use in the query and make everything more readable.
Use the logic for one set containing all the elements of another set (found here) so you can have any number of duplicated courses to match against.

The problem is that your schedule[0].Course object and the s.Courses, from the new query, are completely different.
you may use the element's key to evaluate your equality condition/expression, as:
if (schedules.Count() > 1)
{
doublestudents = (from s in ctx.Students
where s.Courses.Any(x=> x.Key == schedules[0].Course.Key) && s.Courses.Any(x=> x.Key == schedules[1].Course.Key)
select s).ToList();
Console.WriteLine(doublestudents.Count); <<< count results in 0 students.
}
}
In order to achieve this you will need to include
using System.Linq

As you have guessed, this is probably related to reference equality. Here is a quick fix:
doublestudents =
(from s in ctx.Students
where s.Courses.Any(c => c.Id == schedules[0].Course.Id) &&
s.Courses.Any(c => c.Id == schedules[1].Course.Id)
select s).ToList();
Please note that I am assuming that the Course class has a property called Id which is the primary key. Replace it as needed.
Please note that this code assumes that there are two schedules. You need to work on the code to make it work for any number of schedules.
Another approach is to override the Equals and GetHashCode methods on the Course class so that objects of this type are compared based on their values (the values of their properties, possibly the ID property alone?).

Linq query to db with dynamic where parameters

I have a table with data about cities:
In a search input field the user types an arbitrary number of chars then presses "search" button.
There is also another field where the user can enter the state via a dropdownlist.
Pressing the search button triggers an ajax call to a server controller which receives both the starting chars of the name and the two chars of the state.
The controller should return the list of cities with name starting with the supplied chars.
If the state is passed, the list should contain only those cities whose name starts with the supplied chars AND that are situated in the state.
If the state is not passed all matching cities are returned regardless of the state.
I cannot find a way to write a single Linq statement, because I do not know how to write the part of the query for the state:
Currently I do this:
public ActionResult selectCity(string searchString, string stateCode)
{
List<CityViewModel> mylist = new List<CityViewModel>();
IQueryable<City> mycities = null;
if (stateCode == "")
{
mylist = (from c in db.Cities
where c.name.StartsWith(searchString)
select c);
}
else
{
mylist = (from c in db.Cities
where ((c.name.StartsWith(searchString)) &&
(c.stateCode == stateCode))
select c);
}
<snip>
.....
.....
</snip>
return PartialView("_selComune",elenco);
}
I can't believe that there isn't a way to do this with a single query.

Yes, there is.
You want to say: if stateCode is empty or it matches City.stateCode then include it in result moreover City.Name must always begin with searchString. In code:
var mylist =
from c in db.Cities
where
c.name.StartsWith(searchString)
&& (stateCode == "" || c.stateCode == stateCode)
select c;
Roughly equivalent to this SQL (assuming parameters with proper syntax are provided):
SELECT * FROM Cities
WHERE name LIKE #searchString AND (#stateCode = '' OR stateCode = #stateCode)
SQL Server will optimize second comparison away if first condition is always satisfied (just check Query Execution Plan).
I think it's a typo writing code example but myList isn't List<City> unless you also add ToList() to your LINQ query.

Adriano Repetti's answer allows you to write a single query to handle "nullable" parameters but sometimes it has performance drawbacks, translated in SQL the kind of query may prevent indexes to work.
Please note that the following will also work and build the exact needed query on sql side, with only a bit of more code on LINQ side :
mylist = (from c in db.Cities
where c.name.StartsWith(searchString)
select c);
if (stateCode != "")
{
mylist = mylist.Where(c.stateCode == stateCode);
}
This kind of construct won't replace previous "where" content, it will add any new terms combining them with a "and" operator.
IQeryable is made to allow you to built it in many different lines, not a single one like you did in your code sample.

How to execute query to select multiple attributes subject to several where clauses across two tables

I have two tables from which I want to select data from:
Document_Data
Document_info
I want to execute the following query :
SELECT DISTINCT Document_Data.DOC_CLASS, TITLE FROM Document_info,Document_Data WHERE (((DOC_STATUS = '1') AND (PORTAL = 'First Page'))) AND (Document_info.DOC_NUMBER = Document_Data.DOC_NUMBER AND Document_info.REVISION = Document_Data.REVISION AND STATUS = 'CURRENT' AND Document_Data.DOC_CLASS = 'MESSAGE')
Can anyone give me info on how to execute the following query using Linq?

I have made a few assumptions since your query did leave off a few table names. I assumed that STATUS was on the Document_data table and DOC_STATUS was on the Document_info table. If its any different, it shouldn't be hard to modify this query to work.
DbContext is your entity framework context or wherever your store your db collections.
dbContext.Document_info.Where(i => i.DOC_STATUS == "1" && i.PORTAL == "First Page")
.Join(dbContext.Document_data.Where(d => d.DOC_CLASS == "MESSAGE" && d.STATUS == "CURRENT"),
i => new { i.REVISION, i.DOC_NUMBER }, //Document_info
d => new { d.REVISION, d.DOC_NUMBER }, //Document_data
(i, d) => new { d.DOC_CLASS, i.TITLE }) //(Document_info, Document_data)
.Distinct()
.ToList();
The way this works is that it first filters the document_info table to what you wanted from there. It then joins it with a filtered Document_data table on a composite "key" made up of REVISION and DOC_NUMBER. After that, it runs the Distinct and executes the whole query with a ToList.
The above should compile to valid SQL (at least it would using the MySQL connector...I haven't tried anything like that with MSSQL, but I assume that since the MSSQL one works better than MySQL so it would make sense that it would work there too). This particular query would come out to be a little convoluted, however, and might not work very optimally unless you have some foreign keys defined on REVISION and DOC_NUMBER.
I would note that your query will only return things where d.DOC_CLASS == "MESSAGE" and so your results will be quite repetitious.

Problem with linq query

I have a self referencing table "Product" with the following structure (where D = Draft and A = Approved)
ID ParentID Status Name
---------------------------
1 NULL A Foo
2 1 A Foo2
3 NULL D Bar
4 1 D Foo3
A row can either be "new" (where ParentID == null) or can be a version of an existing row. So we can see from the table that there are 3 versions for the item "Foo" and only 1 for "Bar".
I need a way of returning the latest versions of each item based on whether the user is able to see only "Approved" items or is able to see "Draft" as well. So for example
Users who can see "D" would have:
3 NULL D
4 1 D
The "latest" row for "Foo" and "Bar".
Users who can see "A" would have:
2 1 A
ie. only the "Approved" versions.
Thanks in advance,
Jose

Here is the Linq query that should work for you:
bool hasDraftAccess = false;
var query = DataContext.Records.AsQueryable();
if (!hasDraftAccess) {
query = query.Where(r => r.Status == 'A');
}
var seriesQuery = query.Select(r => new { Record = r, SeriesID = r.ParentID ?? r.ID });
var latestQuery = seriesQuery.GroupBy(s => s.SeriesID).Select(g => g.OrderByDescending(s => s.Record.ID).First());
var resultsQuery = latestQuery.Select(s => s.Record);
var results = resultsQuery.ToArray();
Here's what's happening:
First, add a WHERE clause to filter out draft records if the user doesn't have access to them
Then add a pseudo column called 'SeriesID' that groups all the related versions into that one column. That is, make it easy to group parent and related children.
Group the related records and then pick whichever record is most recent
Select the Linq Entity from the anonymous type so that it is updatable
I should note that if you have the ability to change your data schema you should consider adding a column called InsertDate or something to that effect. Right now I am assuming that whatever record has the highest ID is the latest. It is often better to add a DateTime field and sort on that instead.
I apologize that this isn't actually using Linq syntax--I prefer fluent coding styles--but it could be easily translated to Linq syntax if you preferred it.

Totally untested - but something like this might work, if I've understood the question correctly.
Can see approved
context.Table.Where(p => p.Status == "A")
Can see approved and draft
context.Table.Where(p => p.Status == "D" || (p.Status == "A" && !context.Table.Any(q => q.Status == "D" && q.Parent == p.Parent)))