Optimal Way to Link Multiple Arrays in C# ASP.net

Question

I have 3 arrays coming from a webservice...

Countries : Consists of Key - Value
Regions   : Consists of Id - Name - CountryCode(fk: countries)
Areas     : Consists of Id - Name - CountryCode - RegionID(fk: regions)

(the fk is just showing that its the bit of information, foreign key, associating it to the previous array)

I'm stuck on what the best way (most optimal) is to link these together, LINQ Joining looks like a headache and I'm not sure about HashSets.

Any Ideas?

*** Additional;* This will be stored in the application state as the APP as it needs to be refreshed once a day (which in my opinion is quicker to do by simply refreshing the app once a day than storing in a database and updating based on a date stamp.

Answer 1

Linq joins really aren't that bad, the syntax is a little funny at first, but you get used to it pretty quickly.

Answer 2

I'm curious why you say that LINQ Joining looks like a headache: it is exactly what LINQ to Objects is for (querying your in-memory objects and providing services such as joins between those objects).

A potential downside in LINQ is performance overhead, but to be honest it hasn't turned up as a major problem for me yet.

The syntax is simply from obj1 in source1 join obj2 in source2 on <conditional> select {obj1.prop, obj2.prop}

This mirrors SQL pretty heavily, which was the intent.

(To use your example:

from a in Areas
join r in Regions 
 on a.RegionID equals r.Id
join c in Countries 
 on r.CountryCode equals  c.Key
select new {c.Value, r.Name, a.Name, a.Id };

)

Answer 3

Can't you dump them into a DataSet? It's a collection of DataTables that you can predefine Relations for.

private void CreateRelation() 
{
    // Get the DataColumn objects from two DataTable objects 
    // in a DataSet. Code to get the DataSet not shown here.
    DataColumn parentColumn = 
        DataSet1.Tables["Customers"].Columns["CustID"];
    DataColumn childColumn = 
        DataSet1.Tables["Orders"].Columns["CustID"];
    // Create DataRelation.
    DataRelation relCustOrder;
    relCustOrder = new DataRelation("CustomersOrders", 
        parentColumn, childColumn);
    // Add the relation to the DataSet.
    DataSet1.Relations.Add(relCustOrder);
}