Entity Framework sub query

Question

Entity Framework sub query

.net entity-framework subquery

Question

How to write sub queries like these in EF?

select * from table1 where col1 in (select col1 from table2 where col2 = 'xyz')

or

select * from table1 where col1 not in (select col1 from table2 where col2 = 'xyz')

I tried something like these

from t1 in table1
where (from t2 in table2 where col2 = 'xyz' select t2.col1).Contains(t1.col1)
select t1

and

from t1 in table1
where !(from t2 in table2 where col2 = 'xyz' select t2.col1).Contains(t1.col1)
select t1

these queries are working fine LinqPad or Linq to Sql

Gokulnath

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Aaronaught · Accepted Answer · 5/23/2017 12:01:27 PM

This type of subquery can be flattened to a join, which is the way I would choose to write it here:

SQL Version:

SELECT t1.col1, t1.col2, t1.col3, ...
FROM table1 t1
INNER JOIN table2 t2
    ON t1.col1 = t2.col1
WHERE t2.col2 = 'xyz'

Linq Version:

var query =
    from t1 in context.Table1
    where t1.AssociationToTable2.Col2 == "xyz"
    select new { t1.Col1, t1.Col2, ... };

Where AssociationToTable2 is the relationship property - it does the join automatically. Or, if you don't have a relationship:

var query =
    from t1 in context.Table1
    join t2 in context.Table2
        on t1.Col1 equals t2.Col1
    where t2.Col2 == "xyz"
    select new { t1.Col1, t1.Col2, ... };

You can adapt these accordingly for NOT IN, although I'd recommend never to use NOT IN if you can avoid it - performance will sink and it almost always implies an error in design.

If you absolutely must do it the "IN" way, I suggest going over the answers in this question.

Entity Framework sub query

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