how to sqlite query to core data - iphone

how can i translate the following sqlite query to core data
select name, firstname, class, telephone, entryDateTime, counselor, count()
from myTable
group by strftime('yy-mm-dd', entryDateTime), name, class, counselor
order by entryDateTime desc;
what did i try?
i want to group by date(yy-mm-dd), class, counselor, and name. entryDateTime is in UTC but it should be converted to local time.
thanks in advance

The most flexible method for "group by"-like queries is the NSFetchedResultsController. Please see my answer of a couple of days ago, which should help you.
To solve the problem of subgrouping based on more than one attribute, you just use the sectionNameKeyPath as a subgroup and do the other grouping from there after fetching.
Alternatively, consider putting the attributes you need into a different entity and group by that entity.

Related

Entity Framework query based on string stored in configuration file

i would like to know if you have any idea how i can achieve this, considering a query stored as string in the configuration file.
I tried to use SqlQuery applied to the DBSet, but the problem is that SqlQuery requires me to select all properties of the required entities in my query. If i don't consider any column, it will complain because is not able to map the query to the entities.
I don't want to select all properties of the entities i want to query.
Thanks
If you are using EF then why not use Database.ExecuteSqlCommand()? It's in the System.Data.Entity namespace.
For example:
int result = db.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand("Non SELECT SQL etc...");
Well, I ended up implementing a mechanism using reflection that basically receives a group of fields to select, and constructs dynamic objects with those fields, so when applied the query with the joins between the entities, will only bring the fields I am looking for.
So, considering Entity1, Entity2, Entity3 with the following relationship
<b>Entity1</b>{
<br/> Entity1Name, <br/> List<*Entity2*> Entity2Items, <br/> etc..
<br/>}
and
<b>Entity2</b> { <br/> Entity2Name, <br/> List<*Entity3*> Entity3Items <br/>}
I can store e.g. the following query in the configuration file, and retrieve the information:
"Entity1.Entity1Name", <br/>
"Entity1.Entity2Items.Entity2Name", <br/>
"Entity1.Entity2Items.Entity3Items.Entity3Name"
Anyway, I was just trying to see if there would be any solution out-of-the-box that would require minimal code changes.
Thank you.

Selecting columns from different entities

I don't know whether I should be drawing parallels, but unfortunately, that's the only way I can express my issue.
In SQL, suppose we have two tables:
Employee with columns Employee ID, Employee Name, Dept. ID
Deptartment with columns Dept. ID, Dept Name
The Dept ID. in the Employee table is a foreign key with that in the Department table.
Now suppose I want to fetch the following columns:
Employee ID, Employee Name, Department Name
using a SQL such as:
SELECT A.EMPLOYEE_ID, A.EMPLOYEE_NAME, B.DEPT_NAME
FROM EMPLOYEE A, DEPARTMENT B
WHERE A.DEPT_ID = B.DEPT_ID
How would one do this using Core Data in Swift? I guess I'm getting confused by only seeing references to
NSFetchRequest(entityName: entityName)
where the entityName refers to a single entity (table in relational DB lingo)
I'd really appreciate any pointers or examples that can help me clear my doubts.
Thanks
It is certainly possible to create a fetch request that is equivalent to your SQL query. More complex queries can be difficult if not impossible to achieve with a single fetch request. But I recommend trying NOT to draw parallels between CoreData and SQL, at least until you have got to grips with how it works.
To take your example, in the CoreData view of the world, Employee would be an entity with a relationship to another entity, Department. A fetch request based on the Employee entity will return an array of Employee objects, and (assuming you create subclasses of NSManagedObject for each entity) you can access the attributes with simple dot notation:
let employeeName = myEmployeeObject.employeeName
But you can use the same notation to traverse relationships equally easily:
let departmentName = myEmployeeObject.department.departmentName
You don't need to worry about joins, etc; CoreData handles that for you.
Now, suppose you try to do it "the SQL way". You can construct a fetch request based on the Employee entity, but specify "properties to fetch" which likewise traverse the relationship:
let fetch = NSFetchRequest(entity:"Employee")
fetch.propertiesToFetch = ["employeeID", "employeeName", "department.departmentName"]
For this to work, you would need to specify the "resultType" for the fetch request to be DictionaryResultType:
fetch.resultType = .DictionaryResultType
The results from this query would be an array of dictionaries containing the relevant keys and values. But the link with the underlying objects is lost. If you subsequently want to access any details from the relevant Department (or even the Employee), you would have to run a new fetch to get the object itself.

What is the best method for L2E Join in following scenario?

Following are two tables:
Country >> CountryId, CountryName
City >> CityId, CityName, CountryId
I am using repository pattern to generate entity set from database. (example, repository.GetQuery<City>())
Now I want to write such a query that when I fetch City it also generates an populates for corresponding Country in the result set. So I can just access it like, city.Country.CountryName.
I know I can perform this by joining two entity sets, but that must be costly in performance. Probably, .Include<> may help me in achieving this. Any idea/ example to achieve this?
I'm going to assume, since you're using Entity Framework, that your City object has a navigational property of Country which points to the corresponding Country record.
As such, unless you specifically want to use lazy loading, you'll need to use Include. The good news is that you can do the includes inside of your repositories, and not have to write that code on the outside. An example of this can be found here.
Let me know if that works.

can I perform a query inside of JPA entity to get back a single column

I have a dumb question. It would be great if this could be done, but I am not holding my breath.
I need a single column from a table linked to my JPA entity to be a collection in said JPA entity. Is there any way, that I can just get back that column alone that is related to that entity, instead of having to get back an entire table (which could be very costly?)
Can I perform a query inside that JPA entity that will be performed and loaded eagerly into a collection?
I am trying to avoid having to make several calls to the database by just executing a couple of queries.
What are your thoughts on this?
#ElementCollection(fetch=FetchType.EAGER)
#CollectionTable(name="QUICK_LAUNCH_DISTLIST",joinColumns=#JoinColumn(name="QUICK_LAUNCH_ID"))
#Column(name="LIST_ID")
private List<Long> distListIDs;
The ElementCollection attribute is what I was looking for. It seems to work pretty well in addition to that.
Thanks for the help and inspiration guys.
Suppose a Category has many products:
select product.name from Category c inner join c.products product where ...
If that's not what you want, please show an example in your question.

Can't insert entries of a many-to-many relationship in Entity Framework in a specific order

I have a many-to-many relationship between 2 entities in Entity Framework, like here . So, Employees and Projects. At one point, I would like to insert some Projects to a Employees entity in a specific order. By conserving the order I would like to know which was the first preference of the Employees for a Projects entity. The thing is that although I order the Student.Projectslist in the way I like before the insert, when selecting Employees.Projects.FirstOrDefault(), the entities are ordered after the ProjectsId and I don't get the first element I inserted. How can I conserve the order I want?
O course, I could make a new field PreferredProjects and save the other Projects in a random order, since only the preferred one is important for me. But this is not an option, being given the context of the current project's software design.
Thank you in advance...
It sounds like you simply want to have sorted child collection results when you do a query, rather than take full control of the insert order.
You can achieve that using the techniques described in Tip 1 of my tips series.
Hope this helps.
Alex
Program Manager Entity Framework Team.
Unfortunately, there is no easy solution. I have the same problem. The only solution is to save after adding each child item (project). This is the only way to save the order without using a new field column to sort input.
Try Employees.Projects.OrderBy(x => x).FirstOrDefault()