I have a LINQ query
var age = new int[]{1,2,3};
dbContext.TA.WHERE(x=> age.Contains( x.age)).ToList()
In an online article #11 (https://medium.com/swlh/entity-framework-common-performance-mistakes-cdb8861cf0e7) mentioned it is not a good practice as it creates many execution plan at the SQL server.
In this case, how should LINQ be revised so that I can do the same thing but minimize the amount of execution plans generated?
(note that I have no intention to convert it into a stored procedure and pass & join with the UDT as again it requires too many effort to do so)
That article offers some good things to keep in mind when writing expressions for EF. As a general rule that example is something to keep in mind, not a hard "never do this" kind of rule. It is a warning over writing queries that allow for multi-select and to avoid this when possible as it will be on the more expensive side.
In your example with something like "Ages", having a hard-coded list of values does not cause a problem because every execution uses the same list. (until the app is re-compiled with a new list, or you have code that changes the list for some reason.) Examples where it can be perfectly valid to use this is with something like Statuses where you have a status Enum. If there are a small number of valid statuses that a record can have, then declaring a common array of valid statuses to use in an Contains clause is fine:
public void DeleteEnquiry(int enquiryId)
{
var allowedStatuses = new[] { Statuses.Pending, Statuses.InProgress, Statuses.UnderReview };
var enquiry = context.Enquiries
.Where(x => x.EnquiryId == enquiryId && allowedStatuses.Contains(x.Status))
.SingleOrDefault();
try
{
if(enquiry != null)
{
enquiry.IsActive = false;
context.SaveChanges();
}
else
{
// Enquiry not found or invalid status.
}
}
catch (Exception ex) { /* handle exception */ }
}
The statuses in the list aren't going to change so the execution plan is static for that context.
The problem is where you accept something like a parameter with criteria that include a list for a Contains clause.
it is highly unlikely that someone would want to load data where a user could select ages "2, 4, and 6", but rather they would want to select something like: ">=2", or "<=6, or "2>=6" So rather than creating a method that accepts a list of acceptable ages:
public IEnumerable<Children> GetByAges(int[] ages)
{
return _dbContext.Children.Where(x => ages.Contains( x.Age)).ToList();
}
You would probably be better served with ranging the parameters:
private IEnumerable<Children> GetByAgeRange(int? minAge = null, int? maxAge = null)
{
var query = _dbContext.Children.AsQueryable();
if (minAge.HasValue)
query = query.Where(x => x.Age >= minAge.Value);
if (maxAge.HasValue)
query = query.Where(x => x.Age <= maxAge.Value);
return query.ToList();
}
private IEnumerable<Children> GetByAge(int age)
{
return _dbContext.Children.Where(x => x.Age == age).ToList();
}
I'm using WCF RIA in a Lightswitch project to create some query results. This query brings back all results regardless. I cannot make it filter the records based on the parameter passed (string Town).
public IQueryable<Enquiries> TestQuery(string Town)
{
List<Enquiries> riaenqs = new List<Enquiries>();
var enqs = this.Context.ClientEnquiries
.Include("Client")
.Include("Client.Town")
.OrderBy(enq => enq.Id);
if (Town != null)
{
enqs.Where(enq => enq.Client.Town.TownName == Town);
}
foreach (ClientEnquiry item in enqs.ToList())
{
Enquiries enq = new Enquiries();
enq.Id = item.Id;
enq.ClientName = item.Client.FirstName + " " + item.Client.Surname;
enq.Town = item.Client.Town != null ? item.Client.Town.TownName : null;
riaenqs.Add(enq);
}
return riaenqs.AsQueryable();
}
During debugging I can see that the Town is correctly populated and I can see that the query is built accordingly if Town is not null. However, when I hit the foreach statement where the linq to ef query is executed I always get all the results. I just cannot figure out where I'm slipping up.
The LINQ methods like the Where do not modify the collection/expression but always returning a new one.
So you need to reassign the result of the Where to your original variable enqs:
if (Town != null)
{
enqs = enqs.Where(enq => enq.Client.Town.TownName == Town);
}
In the following image you can see where i put the breakpoint and then debugged two step. You can also see that both assignments worked great they have the same count and are the same.
However if I do the following. Run the exact same call but only break on the third line directly then this happnes
set.QuestionSet.Questions should have count of 8 BEFORE the assigment, so it seems it's not properly assigned for some reason. I suspect this has something to do with how I fetch my data from DB.
Question and QuestionSet are normal POCOs and here is the code for the entire method.
public IEnumerable<QuestionSet> SearchAndFilterQuestionsAndSets(string searchString, int nrPerPage, int page, out int totalSearchCount)
{
searchString = searchString.ToLower();
List<QuestionSet> finalList = new List<QuestionSet>();
var result = ActiveContext.QuestionSets
.Select(x => new
{
QuestionSet = x,
Questions = x.Questions.Where(
y =>
y.Description.ToLower().Contains(searchString)
).OrderBy(
z => z.Description
)
})
.ToList();
foreach (var set in result)
{
//If our search matched the set itself we load all questions
if (set.QuestionSet.Name.ToLower().Contains(searchString))
{
//we dont bring empty sets
if (set.QuestionSet.Questions.Count() > 0)
{
set.QuestionSet.Questions = set.QuestionSet.Questions.ToList<Question>().OrderBy(x => x.Description).ToList<Question>();
finalList.Add(set.QuestionSet);
}
}
//We had one or more questions matching the search term
else if (set.Questions.Count() > 0)
{
var b = set.Questions.ToList<Question>();
set.QuestionSet.Questions = set.Questions.ToList<Question>();
finalList.Add(set.QuestionSet);
}
}
totalSearchCount = finalList.Count();
return finalList.Skip((page - 1) * nrPerPage).Take(nrPerPage);
}
UPDATE
If I do this instead in the failing else if
var a = new QuestionSet();
a.Id = set.QuestionSet.Id;
a.Name = set.QuestionSet.Name;
a.Questions = set.Questions.ToList<Question>();
finalList.Add(a);
Then it works, so the problem lies within the anonymous object, but why does it work when i step through with debugger and not otherwise?? call me puzzled.
Could be something to do with Late binding of anonymous types
*Mongo Newbie here
I have a document containing several hundred numeric fields which I need to query in combination.
var collection = _myDB.GetCollection<MyDocument>("collection");
IMongoQuery mongoQuery; // = Query.GT("field", value1).LT(value2);
foreach (MyObject queryObj in Queries)
{
// I have several hundred fields such as Height, that are in queryObj
// how do I build a "boolean" query in C#
mongoQuery = Query.GTE("Height", Convert.ToInt16(queryObj.Height * lowerbound));
}
I have several hundred fields such as Height (e.g. Width, Area, Perimeter etc.), that are in queryObj how do I build a "boolean" query in C# that combines range queries for each field in conjunction.
I have tried to use the example Query.GT("field", value1).LT(value2);, however the compiler does not accept the LT(Value) construct. In any event I need to be able to build a complex boolean query by looping through each of the numeric field values.
Thanks for helping a newbie out.
EDIT 3:
Ok, it looks like you already have code in place to build the complicated query. In that case, you just needed to fix the compiler issue. Am assuming you want to do the following (x > 20 && x < 40) && (y > 30 && y < 50) ...
var collection = _myDB.GetCollection<MyDocument>("collection");
var queries = new List<IMongoQuery>();
foreach (MyObject queryObj in Queries)
{
//I have several hundred fields such as Height, that are in queryObj
//how do I build a "boolean" query in C#
var lowerBoundQuery = Query.GTE("Height", Convert.ToInt16(queryObj.Height * lowerbound));
var upperBoundQuery = Query.LTE("Height", Convert.ToInt16(queryObj.Height * upperbound));
var query = Query.And(lowerBoundQuery, upperBoundQuery);
queries.Add(query);
}
var finalQuery = Query.And(queries);
/*
if you want to instead do an OR,
var finalQuery = Query.Or(queries);
*/
Original Answer.
var list = _myDb.GetCollection<MyDoc>("CollectionName")
.AsQueryable<MyDoc>()
.Where(x =>
x.Height > 20 &&
x.Height < 40)
.ToList();
I have tried to use the example Query.GT("field", value1).LT(value2);,
however the compiler does not accept the LT(Value) construct.
You can query MongoDB using linq, if you are using the official C# driver. That ought to solve the compiler issue I think.
The more interesting question I have in mind is, how are you going to construct that complicated boolean query?
One option is to dynamically build an Expression and then pass that to the Where
My colleague is using the following code for something similar...
public static IQueryable<T> Where<T>(this IQueryable<T> query,
string column, object value, WhereOperation operation)
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(column))
return query;
ParameterExpression parameter = Expression.Parameter(query.ElementType, "p");
MemberExpression memberAccess = null;
foreach (var property in column.Split('.'))
memberAccess = MemberExpression.Property
(memberAccess ?? (parameter as Expression), property);
//change param value type
//necessary to getting bool from string
ConstantExpression filter = Expression.Constant
(
Convert.ChangeType(value, memberAccess.Type)
);
//switch operation
Expression condition = null;
LambdaExpression lambda = null;
switch (operation)
{
//equal ==
case WhereOperation.Equal:
condition = Expression.Equal(memberAccess, filter);
lambda = Expression.Lambda(condition, parameter);
break;
//not equal !=
case WhereOperation.NotEqual:
condition = Expression.NotEqual(memberAccess, filter);
lambda = Expression.Lambda(condition, parameter);
break;
//string.Contains()
case WhereOperation.Contains:
condition = Expression.Call(memberAccess,
typeof(string).GetMethod("Contains"),
Expression.Constant(value));
lambda = Expression.Lambda(condition, parameter);
break;
}
MethodCallExpression result = Expression.Call(
typeof(Queryable), "Where",
new[] { query.ElementType },
query.Expression,
lambda);
return query.Provider.CreateQuery<T>(result);
}
public enum WhereOperation
{
Equal,
NotEqual,
Contains
}
Currently it only supports == && !=, but it shouldn't be that difficult to implement >= or <= ...
You could get some hints from the Expression class: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.linq.expressions.expression.aspx
EDIT:
var props = ["Height", "Weight", "Age"];
var query = _myDb.GetCollection<MyDoc>("CName").AsQueryable<MyDoc>();
foreach (var prop in props)
{
query = query.Where(prop, GetLowerLimit(queryObj, prop), WhereOperation.Between, GetUpperLimit(queryObj, prop));
}
// the above query when iterated over, will result in a where clause that joins each individual `prop\condition` with an `AND`.
// The code above will not compile. The `Where` function I wrote doesnt accept 4 parameters. You will need to implement the logic for that yourself. Though it ought to be straight forward I think...
EDIT 2:
If you don't want to use linq, you can still use Mongo Query. You will just need to craft your queries using the Query.And() and Query.Or().
// I think this might be deprecated. Please refer the release notes for the C# driver version 1.5.0
Query.And(Query.GTE("Salary", new BsonDouble(20)), Query.LTE("Salary", new BsonDouble(40)), Query.GTE("Height", new BsonDouble(20)), Query.LTE("Height", new BsonDouble(40)))
// strongly typed version
new QueryBuilder<Employee>().And(Query<Employee>.GTE(x => x.Salary, 40), Query<Employee>.LTE(x => x.Salary, 60), Query<Employee>.GTE(x => x.HourlyRateToClients, 40), Query<Employee>.LTE(x => x.HourlyRateToClients, 60))
a quick question really.
I'm struggling to implement Linq2Entities statement that could take more than one value for a particular "field". I'm passing a number of strings to the getClientsProjected() I can easily compare single value. But I've got on my page multiple dropdown and out of that I get string separated with coma I then later use to split it to string[] e.g. __ACCOUNT_SITE = "1234,5678" (see the code below) I've tried for/foreach/contains none of which worked...
public IQueryable<ClientViewModel> getClientsProjected(string __ACCOUNT_SITE, string __ACCOUNT)
{
var projectedClients = from c in getClosedSRs()
select new ClientViewModel
{
_ACCOUNT_ID_CSR = c.ACCOUNT_ID_CSR,
_ACCOUNT = c.ACCOUNT,
_ACCOUNT_FAMILY = c.ACCOUNT_FAMILY,
...
...
_ACCOUNT_SITE = c.ACCOUNT_SITE
};
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(__ACCOUNT) != true && __ACCOUNT != "ALL")
{
//this works fine as an __ACCOUNT is of a single value
projectedClients = projectedClients.Where(c => c._ACCOUNT == __ACCOUNT);
}
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(__ACCOUNT_SITE) != true && __ACCOUNT_SITE != "ALL")
{
String[] splitSites = __ACCOUNT_SITE.Split(',');
//????????????????????????????????????????????????
}
return projectedClients;
}
Now, to most of you this will make complete sense. I've read many articles but did not find a proper answer. I however can't use Linq2SQL as already built my entire site using L2E, interface and ReportViewer.
Any workaround?
If you are trying to filter projectedClients based on the values in splitSites, then use:
if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(__ACCOUNT_SITE) != true && __ACCOUNT_SITE != "ALL")
{
String[] splitSites = __ACCOUNT_SITE.Split(',');
projectedClients = projectedClients.Where(x => splitSites.Contains(x._ACCOUNT);
}