LINQ: select an object, but change some properties without creating a new object - linq-to-sql

Question

I'm trying to select an object using values of another object in LINQ SQL,
I currently have this,
var result1 = (from s in pdc.ScanLogs
from ec in pdc.ExhibitsContacts
where s.ExhibitID == ec.ExhibitID
select ec.Contact);
I want to assign a value of ec.Contact.Note = ec.Comment;
Is there to a way to do this in LINQ SQL without writing multiple queries?
I read this blog article: http://blog.robvolk.com/2009/05/linq-select-object-but-change-some.html but it doesn't seem to work with LINQ SQL.

Answer 1

Basically you can't do this. LINQ is meant to be a query language, and what you want to do is mutate existing entities with your query. This means your query would have side effects and this is not something that is supported by LINQ to SQL.
While this won't work in a single query while returning LINQ to SQL entities, what will work is when you return simple DTO structues. For instance:
var result1 =
from s in pdc.ScanLogs
from ec in s.ExhibitsContacts
select new ContactDto
{
Id = ec.Contact.Id,
Note = ec.Comment,
SomeOtherFields = ec.Contact.SomeOtherFields
};
As a side note: also look at how I removed the where s.ExhibitID == ec.ExhibitID join from the query, by just using the ExhibitsContacts property of the ScanLog entity (which will be generated by LINQ to SQL for you when your database schema has the proper foreign keys defined).
Update:
When you need to return those DTO from several methods, you might consider centralizing the transformation from a collection of entities to a collection of DTO objects. What I tend to do is place this method on the DTO (which makes it easy to find). The code might look like this:
public class ContactDto
{
// Many public properties here
public static IQueryable<ContactDto> ToDto(
IQueryable<Contact> contacts)
{
return
from contact in contacts
select new ContactDto
{
Id = contact.Id,
Note = contact.ExhibitsContact.Comment,
ManyOtherFields = contact.ManyOtherFields
};
}
}
The trick with this static transformation method is that it takes an IQueryable and returns an IQueryable. This allows to to simply specify the transformation and let LINQ to SQL (or any other LINQ enabled O/RM) to efficiently execute that LINQ expression later on. The original code would now look like this:
IQueryable<Contact> contacts =
from s in pdc.ScanLogs
from ec in s.ExhibitsContacts
select ec.Contact;
IQuerable<ContactDto> result1 = ContactDto.ToDto(contacts);

Answer 2

the problem is that LINQ to SQL does not know how to interpret your extension method. The only way, other than using stored procedures from LINQ to SQL (which kind of defeats the ponit), is to get the object, update and then commit changes.