Best method for programmatically requesting db table columns using LINQ

Question

Is there a good way of requesting only specified columns from the database using LINQ? I want to be able to select only certain columns depending on arbitrary conditions from code.

Answer 1

Not sure exactly what you mean.

Are you maybe wanting to pull different columns based on a conditional?

Something like this?

if(condition)
{
    table.Select(x => x.ColumnA);
}
else
{
    table.Select(x => x.ColumnB);
}

Answer 2

You can create anonymous types for each condition, which contain only the columns you specify.

var anonymousType = from item in itemCollection
   select new {Column1 = item.Column1, Column2 = item.Column2};

var anonymousType2 = from item in itemCollection
   select new {Column2 = item.Column2, Column3 = item.Column3};