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Linq IN Clause in Where

I want to know how to use IN clause in Linq. Here is my Code :-
int empCount = ctx.tblEmpTran
.Count(
e => e.Id == Id &&
e.Month == selectedMonth &&
e.Year == selectedYear &&
e.employeeId.contains()
);
The Following query is supposed to be in IN
SELECT A.Id FROM dbo.EmployeeDetail A WHERE A.CompanyId = 1 AND A.COLS > 0
In the above code, contains method do not popup in intellisense.

This is because you are trying to convert from SQL to Linq, and you couldn't try a worse approach.
You should try to write your LINQ query starting from what you need it to do, forgetting SQL altogether.
In Linq there is no "IN" operator, to achieve the same thing you take your collection and check if it Contains the value.
So in your scenario you should simply generate your collection of valid values and then in your query do:
myCollection.Contains(e.employeeId)
It is "collection CONTAINS value" the logic, not "value is found IN collection". Again if you insist to start from SQL when using Linq you will always incur in this kind of problems.
Check Albahari tutorial on how to approach Linq correctly and your productivity will skyrocket.

You should create a collection of employee IDs that you want to check, and the code would be
employees.contains(e.employeeId)

Instead of this e.employeeId.contains(), you should use this:
listOfIds.Contains(e.employeeId)
where listOfIds would be a list of int, List<int> and would contain the ids you would place between the parentheses after IN(...).

considering that you have a tblEmployeeDetail in the same DbSet and them having a relation through employeeId you can write you query like.
var q = from e in ctx.tblEmployeeDetail where e.Transactions.Any(t => t.Month == selectedMonth &&
t.Year == selectedYear);
int empCount = q.Count();
this is pseudo-code but this is how you would use the LINQ effectively, (Exists is better than In check)

LINQ and check for !=null

Never used LINQ within C# before until 30 mins ago and am struggling to find an answer to my query online (probably due to my lack of understanding).
I have a simple query
var variableName = from a in tableName.AsEnumerable()
where a.column1 == item1
&& a.column2 == item2
&& a.column3 != null
select a;
The SQL column is defined as an int, null.
When the code encounters a record that is null on the database for column3, the following error is generated "the value for column3 in table <tableName> is DBNull".
Instead of checking for != null, i guess i should be using something else, but have attempted checking for DBNull.Value but the compiler states "Operation != cannot be applied to operands of type int and system.DBNull".
Any ideas?

This looks like a typed dataset, which : yeuch - stop using those, but I digress.
As such, accessing a.column3 will always raise an exception if that value is DBNull. You would need to use the typed-dataset pattern:
&& !c.Iscolumn3Null()

tableName.AsEnumerable() makes the query in-memory, so all table rows are downloaded from DB and the conditions are checked on application.
Try that:
var variableName = from a in tableName
where a.column1 == item1
&& a.column2 == item2
&& a.column3 != null
select a;
It should be translated into an SQL query and download only necessary rows.

Try this..
var variableName = from a in tableName.AsEnumerable()
where a.column1 == item1
&& a.column2 == item2
&& a.column3 != dbnull.value
select a;

try
var variableName = from a in tableName.AsEnumerable()
where a.column1 == item1
&& a.column2 == item2
&& !DBNull.Value.Equals(a.column3)
select a;
edit apparently I need to read up on typed data sets :) and why I should never use them

How to get SQL query into LINQ form in C# code

How can I convert the following SQL queries into LINQ query form in C#, .NET 3.5 code:
1)
select COUNT(distinct Skill_Name)
from Table1
where Department = 'ABC' and Skill_Name is not null
2)
select distinct location, country from Customer where Customer_Code ='1001';

I suspect you want:
var query = from entry in dbContext.Table1
where entry.Department == "ABC" && entry.SkillName != null
select entry.SkillName;
var count = query.Distinct().Count();
Or using extension method syntax, in one go:
var count = dbContext.Table1
.Where(entry => entry.Department == "ABC" &&
entry.SkillName != null)
.Select(entry => entry.SkillName)
.Distinct()
.Count();
As shown by mesiesta, you can combine query expressions with calls not supported within query expressions, but I tend to assign the query expression to an intermediate variable... I personally find it clearer, but use whichever you (and your team) prefer.

Something like this
int count = (from p in Table1
where p.Department == "ABC" && p.Skill_Name != null
select p.Skill_Name).Distinct().Count();
For second query you can use this
var query= (from p in Customer
where p.Customer_Code=="1001"
select new { Location=p.location ,Country=p.country}).Distinct();

you can use linqpad to convert to linq and lambda expressions

LINQ query to select top five

I have a LINQ query:
var list = from t in ctn.Items
where t.DeliverySelection == true && t.Delivery.SentForDelivery == null
orderby t.Delivery.SubmissionDate
select t;
How can I modify this query to select just five results from the database?

var list = (from t in ctn.Items
where t.DeliverySelection == true && t.Delivery.SentForDelivery == null
orderby t.Delivery.SubmissionDate
select t).Take(5);

The solution:
var list = (from t in ctn.Items
where t.DeliverySelection == true && t.Delivery.SentForDelivery == null
orderby t.Delivery.SubmissionDate
select t).Take(5);

This can also be achieved using the Lambda based approach of Linq;
var list = ctn.Items
.Where(t=> t.DeliverySelection == true && t.Delivery.SentForDelivery == null)
.OrderBy(t => t.Delivery.SubmissionDate)
.Take(5);

[Offering a somewhat more descriptive answer than the answer provided by #Ajni.]
This can also be achieved using LINQ fluent syntax:
var list = ctn.Items
.Where(t=> t.DeliverySelection == true && t.Delivery.SentForDelivery == null)
.OrderBy(t => t.Delivery.SubmissionDate)
.Take(5);
Note that each method (Where, OrderBy, Take) that appears in this LINQ statement takes a lambda expression as an argument. Also note that the documentation for Enumerable.Take begins with:
Returns a specified number of contiguous elements from the start of a
sequence.

Additional information
Sometimes it is necessary to bind a model into a view models and give a type conversion error. In this situation you should use ToList() method.
var list = (from t in ctn.Items
where t.DeliverySelection == true && t.Delivery.SentForDelivery == null
orderby t.Delivery.SubmissionDate
select t).Take(5).ToList();

Just thinking you might be feel unfamiliar of the sequence From->Where->Select, as in sql script, it is like Select->From->Where.
But you may not know that inside Sql Engine, it is also parse in the sequence of
'From->Where->Select', To validate it, you can try a simple script
select id as i from table where i=3
and it will not work, the reason is engine will parse Where before Select, so it won't know alias i in the where. To make this work, you can try
select * from (select id as i from table) as t where i = 3

"IN" Operator in Linq

I am trying to convert an old raw Sql query in Linq with Entity Framework here.
It was using the IN operator with a collection of items. The query was something like that:
SELECT Members.Name
FROM Members
WHERE Members.ID IN ( SELECT DISTINCT ManufacturerID FROM Products WHERE Active = 1)
ORDER BY Members.Name ASC
Since the return of the subquery is not a single string but a collection of strings I can't use the String.Contains() method.
I thought about doing something like :
var activeProducts = (
from products in db.ProductSet
where product.Active == true
select product.ManufacturerID);
and then
var activeMembers = (
from member in db.ContactSet
where member.ID.ToString().Contains(activeProducts));
but it stops at the contains saying it has invalid arguments ... I can't select activeProducts.ManufacturerID because obviously the proprety is not there since it returns an IQueryable...
Bottom line what I'm trying to do here is to return a list of members who have at least one active product.
Any hint ?
[edit]
Here's the full query code ... I tried with the contains on the second expression, Linq didn't seem to like it :
Server Error in '/' Application.
LINQ to Entities does not recognize the method 'Boolean Contains[String](System.Linq.IQueryable``1[System.String], System.String)' method, and this method cannot be translated into a store expression.
var activeProduct =(from product in Master.DataContext.ProductSet
where product.Active == true
&& product.ShowOnWebSite == true
&& product.AvailableDate <= DateTime.Today
&& ( product.DiscontinuationDate == null || product.DiscontinuationDate >= DateTime.Today )
select product.ManufacturerID.ToString() );
var activeArtists = from artist in Master.DataContext.ContactSet
where activeProduct.Contains(artist.ID.ToString())
select artist;
NumberOfArtists = activeArtists.Count();
artistsRepeater.DataSource = activeArtists;
artistsRepeater.DataBind();
[More details]
ManufacturerID is a nullable GUID apparently...
For some reason the ContactSet class do not contain any reference to the products I guess I will have to do a join query, no clues here.

var activeMembers = (
from member in db.ContactSet
where activeProducts.Select(x=>x.ID).Contains(member.ID));

Try where activeProducts.Contains(member.ID).
EDIT: Did you try it without any ToStrings?

You can do it in one query:
var q = from member in db.ContactSet
where member.Products.Any(p => p.IsActive)
select member;

Try the solution posted by Colin Meek at: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/adodotnetentityframework/thread/095745fe-dcf0-4142-b684-b7e4a1ab59f0/. It worked for me.

What about this:
from m in members
where products.FirstOrDefault(prod => prod.IsActive == 1 && prod.Id == m.Id) != null
select m;
you can chain any number of conditions required in the where clause using &&
Ash..

from m in members
where products.Any(p => p.Active && p.ManufacturerID == m.ID)
select m
or
from m in members
join p in products on m.ID equals p.ManufacturerID
where p.Active
select m

Instead of this:
var activeMembers = (
from member in db.ContactSet
where member.ID.ToString().Contains(activeProducts));
Try this:
var activeMembers = (
from member in db.ContactSet
where activeProducts.Contains(member.ID));

What if you swap the statement (untested)?
where activeProducts.Contains(member.ID)

How about this...
var activeProducts = (
from products in db.ProductSet
where product.Active == true
select product.ManufacturerID);
var activeMembers = (
from member in db.ContactSet
where activeProducts.Contains(member.ID.ToString()));

A helper or extension method will work fine when querying against objects in memory. But against an SQL database, your LINQ code will be compiled into an expression tree, analysed and translated into an SQL command. This functionality has no concept of custom-made extension methods or methods of other objects like .Contains(...).
It could be easily implemented into the standard LINQ-To-SQL functionality by Microsoft though. But as long as they don't want, we're helpless as long it's not an open source functionality.
All you can do is create your own QueryProvider that goes against an SQL database. But it will be hard and it would be only for that one in feature alone that you're missing.
However, if you really wanna go that route, have fun: LINQ: BUILDING AN IQUERYABLE PROVIDER SERIES

Finally I managed to code something really ugly, but that actually works! (lol)
var activeProduct =(from product in Master.DataContext.ProductSet
where product.Active == true
&& product.ShowOnWebSite == true
&& product.AvailableDate <= DateTime.Today
&& ( product.DiscontinuationDate == null || product.DiscontinuationDate >= DateTime.Today )
select product.ManufacturerID ).Distinct();
var artists = from artist in Master.DataContext.ContactSet
select artist;
List<Evolution.API.Contact> activeArtists = new List<Evolution.API.Contact>();
foreach (var artist in artists)
{
foreach(var product in activeProduct)
{
if (product.HasValue && product.Value == artist.ID)
activeArtists.Add(artist);
}
}
NumberOfArtists = activeArtists.Count();
artistsRepeater.DataSource = activeArtists;
artistsRepeater.DataBind();

I have already posted about the same at
http://www.codeproject.com/Tips/336253/Filtering-records-from-List-based-similar-to-Sql-I

var q = (from p in db.DOCAuditTrails
where p.ActionUser == "MyUserID"
&& p.ActionTaken == "Not Actioned"
&& p.ActionDate > DateTime.Parse("2011-09-13")
select p.RequisitionId).Distinct();
var DocAuditResults = db.DOCAuditTrails.Where(p
=> q.ToArray().Contains(p.RequisitionId));

Without know the exact mappings it is hard to tell what can be done and what can't. I will assume that there isn't any casting involved. Firstly you have to remember that everything in the Linq Expression tree must have an equivalent in SQL. As some others have noted, you have a object.ToString() in your Linq Statements.
However it seems that what people have neglected to mention is that you have TWO usages of object.ToSting(), both of which must be removed.
I would also make an extra variable to change the closure's capture type to be explicitly of DataContext (since the Linq statement is like a lambda, and delayed evaluated. It will need to take the whole of the Master variable. Earlier I stated that everything in your Linq must have an equivalent in SQL. Given that Master can't possibly exist in SQL, there is no DataContext property/column/mapping for the type of Master).
var context = Master.DataContext;
var activeProduct = from product in context.ProductSet
where product.Active == true
&& product.ShowOnWebSite == true
&& product.AvailableDate <= DateTime.Today
&& ( product.DiscontinuationDate == null || product.DiscontinuationDate >= DateTime.Today )
select product.ManufacturerID;
var activeArtists = from artist in context.ContactSet
where activeProduct.Contains(artist.ID)
select artist;
I hope the above changes work for you.
In many cases issues with Linq to ORMs can be traced back to your Linq Expression capturing a non primative (DateTime, int, string etc) and non ORM based class (DataContext/EntityObject etc). The other major gotcha is usage of functions and operators that aren't exposed by the ORM (it is possible to map user defined functions to .net function through the ORM, but I would not recommend it due to indexing issues).