How to make IQueryable<out T> work with a reqular IQueryable?

Question

I am using Linq2SQL and working with a legacy system. The system was built in .Net but without a datalayer so I am transcoding it so that it will have one. I have a linq query that looks like this...

 var data = from p in db.tblPeoples
                   orderby p.strLastName,p.strFirstName
                   select new
                   {
                       guidPersonId = p.guidPersonId,
                       strFirstName = p.strFirstName,
                       strLastName = p.strLastName,
                       strRank = p.tblCodesRank.strDescription,
                       strPhone = p.strPhone,
                       strEmail = p.strEmail,
                       strOffice = p.tblOrganization.strAcronym,
                       RolesList = p.tblRoles
                   };

and when I check the signature of the var it is an IQueryable and I have no idea what that is. In my datalayer I have this returning as an IQueryable, but when I try to use the datalayer version and then do a .where on the returned dataset to search on it, I get errors that I Cannot convert lambda expresstion to type 'string' because it is not a delegate type.

What should I do about this? I am trying to create code reuse and use my datalayer version that is already written. the data layer version looks like this:

public static IQueryable RetrieveAllPeople()
{
            var data = from p in db.tblPeoples
               orderby p.strLastName, p.strFirstName
               select new
               {
                   guidPersonId = p.guidPersonId,
                   strFirstName = p.strFirstName,
                   strLastName = p.strLastName,
                   strRank = p.tblCodesRank.strDescription,
                   strPhone = p.strPhone,
                   strEmail = p.strEmail,
                   strOffice = p.tblOrganization.strAcronym,
                   RolesList = p.tblRoles
               };

    return data;
}

Answer 1

Your return type should be IQueryable<T>, which is not the same as IQueryable.

To do so, you need to create a class to fill in your select instead of using an anonymous one like you do.