Creating a dynamic linq query

Question

I have the following query:

from p in dataContext.Repository<IPerson>()
     join spp1 in dataContext.Repository<ISportsPerPerson>() on p.Id equals spp1.PersonId
     join s1 in dataContext.Repository<ISports>() on spp1.SportsId equals s1.Id
     join spp2 in dataContext.Repository<ISportsPerPerson>() on p.Id equals spp2.PersonId
     join s2 in dataContext.Repository<ISports>() on spp2.SportsId equals s2.Id
     where s1.Name == "Soccer" && s2.Name == "Tennis"
     select new { p.Id };

It selects all the person who play Soccer and Tennis.
On runtime the user can select other tags to add to the query, for instance: "Hockey". now my question is, how could I dynamically add "Hockey" to the query? If "Hockey" is added to the query, it would look like this:

from p in dataContext.Repository<IPerson>()
     join spp1 in dataContext.Repository<ISportsPerPerson>() on p.Id equals spp1.PersonId
     join s1 in dataContext.Repository<ISports>() on spp1.SportsId equals s1.Id
     join spp2 in dataContext.Repository<ISportsPerPerson>() on p.Id equals spp2.PersonId
     join s2 in dataContext.Repository<ISports>() on spp2.SportsId equals s2.Id  
     join spp3 in dataContext.Repository<ISportsPerPerson>() on p.Id equals spp3.PersonId
     join s3 in dataContext.Repository<ISports>() on spp3.SportsId equals s3.Id
     where s1.Name == "Soccer" && s2.Name == "Tennis" && s3.Name == "Hockey"
     select new { p.Id };

It would be preferable if the query is build up dynamically like:

private void queryTagBuilder(List<string> tags)
{
    IDataContext dataContext = new LinqToSqlContext(new L2S.DataContext());
    foreach(string tag in tags)
    {
        //Build the query?
    }
}

Anyone has an idea on how to set this up correctly? Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

A LINQ query is not parsed until it is actually executed. So you can do stuff like this:

var q = from r in ctx.records 
         /* Do other stuff */
         select r;

if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(search)) {
  q = from r in q
       where r.title == search
       select r;
}

if (orderByName) {
  q = q.OrderBy(r => r.name);
}

/* etc */

this will create one SQL statement being executed.

For your specific question: The joins make it somewhat complicated, but I think you can join with other "dynamic" queries.

So you would end up with something like this:

var baseQ = from p in dataContext.Repository<IPerson>()
            select p;
foreach(var tag in tags) {
   baseQ = from p in baseQ 
     join spp1 in dataContext.Repository<ISportsPerPerson>() on p.Id equals spp1.PersonId
     join s1 in dataContext.Repository<ISports>() on spp1.SportsId equals s1.Id
     where s1.name == tag
     select p;
}

/* If you have defined your relations correct, simplify to something like this.
   Does not actually work because of SportsPerPerson probably has multiple sports: */
foreach(var tag in tags) {
   baseQ = baseQ.Any(p => p.SportsPerPerson.Sports.Name == tag); 
}


var resultQ = from p in baseQ
     select new { p.Id };

Answer 2

Me and my colleague have found the solution, and we refactored the query so it would work properly. We now use the following query to retrieve the correct resultset:

var query = dataContext.Repository<ILead>();

        foreach (var tag in tags)
        {
            String tagName = tag;
            query = query.Where(l => dataContext.Repository<ISportsPerPerson>()
                         .Any(tpl => tpl.PersonId.Equals(l.Id) && tpl.Sports.Name.Equals(tagName)));
        }
// Do something with query resultset :]