In the original Linq CTP and the first Orcas Beta, we included a DataSet specific Linq operator called CopyToDataTable<T> (It was called ToDataTable at one point also). For Beta 2 of Orcas, we ended up restricting this method to only work with DataRows (or some derived type) via a generic constraint on the method.
The reason for this was simply resource constraints. When we started to design how the real version of CopyToDataTable<T> should work, we realized that there are a number of potentially interesting mappings between objects and DataRows and didn't have the resources to come up with a complete solution. Hence, we decided to cut the feature and release the source as a sample.
Surprising to us, a lot of folks noticed this and were wondering where the feature had gone. It does make a nice solution for dealing with projections in Linq in that one can load instances of anonymous types into DataRows.
So as promised, below is sample code of how to implement CopyToDataTable<T> when the generic type T is not a DataRow.
A few notes about this code:
1. The initial schema of the DataTable is based on schema of the type T. All public property and fields are turned into DataColumns.
2. If the source sequence contains a sub-type of T, the table is automatically expanded for any addition public properties or fields.
3. If you want to provide a existing table, that is fine as long as the schema is consistent with the schema of the type T.
4. Obviously this sample probably needs some perf work. Feel free to suggest improvements.
5. I only included two overloads - there is no technical reason for this, just Friday afternoon laziness.
UPDATE 9/14 - Based on some feedback from akula, I have fixed a couple of issues with the code:
1) The code now supports loading sequences of scalar values.
2) Cases where the developer provides a datatable which needs to be completely extended based on the type T is now supported.
UPDATE 12/17 - In the comments, Nick Lucas has provided a solution to handling Nullable types in the input sequence. I have not tried it yet, but it look like it works.
class Sample { static void Main(string[] args) { // create sequence Item[] items = new Item[] { new Book{Id = 1, Price = 13.50, Genre = "Comedy", Author = "Jim Bob"}, new Book{Id = 2, Price = 8.50, Genre = "Drama", Author = "John Fox"}, new Movie{Id = 1, Price = 22.99, Genre = "Comedy", Director = "Phil Funk"}, new Movie{Id = 1, Price = 13.40, Genre = "Action", Director = "Eddie Jones"}}; var query1 = from i in items where i.Price > 9.99 orderby i.Price select i; // load into new DataTable DataTable table1 = query1.CopyToDataTable(); // load into existing DataTable - schemas match DataTable table2 = new DataTable(); table2.Columns.Add("Price", typeof(int)); table2.Columns.Add("Genre", typeof(string)); var query2 = from i in items where i.Price > 9.99 orderby i.Price select new {i.Price, i.Genre}; query2.CopyToDataTable(table2, LoadOption.PreserveChanges); // load into existing DataTable - expand schema + autogenerate new Id. DataTable table3 = new DataTable(); DataColumn dc = table3.Columns.Add("NewId", typeof(int)); dc.AutoIncrement = true; table3.Columns.Add("ExtraColumn", typeof(string)); var query3 = from i in items where i.Price > 9.99 orderby i.Price select new { i.Price, i.Genre }; query3.CopyToDataTable(table3, LoadOption.PreserveChanges); // load sequence of scalars. var query4 = from i in items where i.Price > 9.99 orderby i.Price select i.Price; var DataTable4 = query4.CopyToDataTable(); } public class Item { public int Id { get; set; } public double Price { get; set; } public string Genre { get; set; } } public class Book : Item { public string Author { get; set; } } public class Movie : Item { public string Director { get; set; } } } public static class DataSetLinqOperators { public static DataTable CopyToDataTable<T>(this IEnumerable<T> source) { return new ObjectShredder<T>().Shred(source, null, null); } public static DataTable CopyToDataTable<T>(this IEnumerable<T> source, DataTable table, LoadOption? options) { return new ObjectShredder<T>().Shred(source, table, options); } } public class ObjectShredder<T> { private FieldInfo[] _fi; private PropertyInfo[] _pi; private Dictionary<string, int> _ordinalMap; private Type _type; public ObjectShredder() { _type = typeof(T); _fi = _type.GetFields(); _pi = _type.GetProperties(); _ordinalMap = new Dictionary<string, int>(); } public DataTable Shred(IEnumerable<T> source, DataTable table, LoadOption? options) { if (typeof(T).IsPrimitive) { return ShredPrimitive(source, table, options); } if (table == null) { table = new DataTable(typeof(T).Name); } // now see if need to extend datatable base on the type T + build ordinal map table = ExtendTable(table, typeof(T)); table.BeginLoadData(); using (IEnumerator<T> e = source.GetEnumerator()) { while (e.MoveNext()) { if (options != null) { table.LoadDataRow(ShredObject(table, e.Current), (LoadOption)options); } else { table.LoadDataRow(ShredObject(table, e.Current), true); } } } table.EndLoadData(); return table; } public DataTable ShredPrimitive(IEnumerable<T> source, DataTable table, LoadOption? options) { if (table == null) { table = new DataTable(typeof(T).Name); } if (!table.Columns.Contains("Value")) { table.Columns.Add("Value", typeof(T)); } table.BeginLoadData(); using (IEnumerator<T> e = source.GetEnumerator()) { Object[] values = new object[table.Columns.Count]; while (e.MoveNext()) { values[table.Columns["Value"].Ordinal] = e.Current; if (options != null) { table.LoadDataRow(values, (LoadOption)options); } else { table.LoadDataRow(values, true); } } } table.EndLoadData(); return table; } public DataTable ExtendTable(DataTable table, Type type) { // value is type derived from T, may need to extend table. foreach (FieldInfo f in type.GetFields()) { if (!_ordinalMap.ContainsKey(f.Name)) { DataColumn dc = table.Columns.Contains(f.Name) ? table.Columns[f.Name] : table.Columns.Add(f.Name, f.FieldType); _ordinalMap.Add(f.Name, dc.Ordinal); } } foreach (PropertyInfo p in type.GetProperties()) { if (!_ordinalMap.ContainsKey(p.Name)) { DataColumn dc = table.Columns.Contains(p.Name) ? table.Columns[p.Name] : table.Columns.Add(p.Name, p.PropertyType); _ordinalMap.Add(p.Name, dc.Ordinal); } } return table; } public object[] ShredObject(DataTable table, T instance) { FieldInfo[] fi = _fi; PropertyInfo[] pi = _pi; if (instance.GetType() != typeof(T)) { ExtendTable(table, instance.GetType()); fi = instance.GetType().GetFields(); pi = instance.GetType().GetProperties(); } Object[] values = new object[table.Columns.Count]; foreach (FieldInfo f in fi) { values[_ordinalMap[f.Name]] = f.GetValue(instance); } foreach (PropertyInfo p in pi) { values[_ordinalMap[p.Name]] = p.GetValue(instance, null); } return values; } }
Comments
Sorry, entry moved to http://oakleafblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/linq-and-entity-framework-posts-for.html
--rj
This is great and was exactly what I needed. I do get an parameter mismatch error in
foreach (PropertyInfo p in pi)
{
values[_ordinalMap[p.Name]] = p.GetValue(instance,null);
}
if I use:
var a = (from m_var in dc.Ptabs
select m_var.CAR ).Distinct();
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
ds.Tables.Add(a.CopyToDataTable());
but not if I do this
var a = (from m_var in dc.Ptabs
select new { Car = m_var.CAR }).Distinct();
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
ds.Tables.Add(a.CopyToDataTable());
thanks - there are a couple of problems here:
1) The code is not catching the error case when the type T of the source sequence does not match the schema of the provided datatable. I suppose I could extend the table automatically in this case.
2) The results of your query is just a sequence of scaler values. The code wasn't really designed for this and I am not sure I see much value, but I suppose I could just make a table with a single column.
I will update the sample code to fix these issues.
This seems very helpful, is there a straightforward way to implement in vb.net?
Hi, this post was helpful.
However it seems to have problem when used with nullable types.
I am using LINQ to SQL data context calss to store data base tables.Then I query these tables and get result of type "var" and then convert it to datatable using this code.
Some of the tables are of nullable type.So while conversion I receive an error saying "DataSet does not support System.Nullable<>"
inside the ExtendTable method, when the code tries to add columns to the "table"
Pls let me know if you have any suggestions/workaround to this problem.
Thanks in advance
Regards,
Neeta
ah - I will try to get the code working with nullable types over the holidays.
Change the code to be this in order to handle nullable types:
foreach (PropertyInfo p in type.GetProperties())
{
if (!_ordinalMap.ContainsKey(p.Name))
{
Type colType = p.PropertyType;
if ((colType.IsGenericType) && (colType.GetGenericTypeDefinition() == typeof(Nullable<>)))
{
colType = colType.GetGenericArguments()[0];
}
DataColumn dc = table.Columns.Contains(p.Name) ? table.Columns[p.Name]
: table.Columns.Add(p.Name, colType);
_ordinalMap.Add(p.Name, dc.Ordinal);
}
}
Wow thank you so much! This allows me to use a LINQ query in my DAL and then bind an Object Data Source control to it. Then I can bind the GridView to the Object Data Source control and turn on sorting and paging and it all works!
Thank you all.Is there a VB version of the complete code anywhere else?Any help appreciated much.
I am trying to use the above idea to convert entities into datatables. However, the linq query does not expose the CopyToDataTable() method. Am I missing something here?
Make sure you use the namespace the you defined the DataSetLinqOperators in.
A number of people have asked me for a VB version of the CopyToDataTable<T> sample I wrote a few
A number of people have asked me for a VB version of the CopyToDataTable<T> sample I wrote a few
I cannot find any CopyToDataTable() method......
btw, i think if we just want a datatable , using the code above is
sooooooooooooo complex.
Awesome.
I added in the change for Nullable types by Nick and the whole thing is working beautifully. Only thing of note is that I had to change the method names due to a conflict. I am going to check that out.
Cheers.
There was a CopytoDataTable method in early betas of LINQ but then it disappeared. C#: Andy Conrad on
any code out there that can help load a dlinq object FROM a datatable? Im workin with webservices and still passing datasets, so would like to load up a bunch of dlinq entities from the datatables and commit them to the db... probably easier to just use the datatables, i guess...
A utilização do LinQ em projetos dentro do TJMT forçou uma estrutura de projeto, mas ainda não estamos
I was looking the same thing.
I tried the above solution but for various reasons I was not satisfied.
One of the biggest reasons was that I like using Typed Datasets.
So I tried to create my own convertion method.It stated as a proof o concept and later became something that could be done.
Here is the solution I propose
http://sarafianalex.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/typed-dataset-linq-entities/
Great thanks!!! This is good way!