Creating Master Detail representation data display forms using LINQ (C#)

Creating Master Detail representation data display forms using LINQ (C#)
We need to develop a master and detail transaction display or entry data forms while building enterprise applications.
I am trying to use the power and strength of LINQ in my windows application. In this article LINQ is used to extract data from object sources
In this article by giving a simple example, the master and detail representation of data display is explained using C# win forms and LINQ.
In my earlier articles I used Northwind database to work on LINQ, here the custom objects are used to hold data. Here LINQ is used to extract data from object source using joins and grouping.
In this example 2 classes Department and Employee with required public properties in each class are used. Each class is having constructor to save the data.
Also 2 GridViews are used to show Department and Employee records. Data will be bind to GridViews through Binding source
BindingSource Class (System.Windows.Forms):
The BindingSource component serves many purposes. First, it simplifies binding controls on a form to data by providing currency management, change notification, and other services between Windows Forms controls and data sources. This is accomplished by attaching the BindingSource component to your data source using the DataSource property
Initially data will be loaded to BindingSource and the BindingSource is used to get the data into GridView controls
In this case the BindingSource and the GridView both controls DataSource property needs to set
LINQ data will be bind to Binding Source to its DataSource property and the BindingSource is used to set GridView DataSource property
Create list of objects for both sources and add data
private List Departments = new List();
private List Employees = new List();

Adding data to Department through list
Departments.Add(new Department(10, "Sales", "Hyderabad"));

Adding data to Employee through list
Employees.Add(new Employee(1, "Krishna Prasad", 10, "Manager", 30000));
Set GridViews AutoGeneratedColumns property to true to show the BindingSource data from Object sources
dgvEmployees.AutoGenerateColumns = true;
dgvDepartments.AutoGenerateColumns = true;
Data can be grouped and retrieved from object sources as specified below


var matchingEmployees = from dept in Departments
join emp in Employees on dept.DeptNo equals emp.DeptNo
into AvailableEmployees
select new { department = dept, employees = AvailableEmployees };

The Dictionary object is used to hold selected group data.
Dictionary:
Represents a collection of keys and values
The Dictionary<(Of <(TKey, TValue>)>) generic class provides a mapping from a set of keys to a set of values. Each addition to the dictionary consists of a value and its associated key. Retrieving a value by using its key is very fast, close to O(1), because the Dictionary<(Of <(TKey, TValue>)>) class is implemented as a hash table
The Dictionary object requires two parameters, first one is the key and the second one is the value.
In this example the Key is Department (record) and value is related Employee records for the selected Department

this.GroupEmployee = matchingEmployees.ToDictionary(x => x.department, y => y.employees);
Now the data is saved into the Dictionary object. When ever the Master record (Ex: Department in this example)selection is changed in maser GridView, the records need to be shown in the detail GridView (Ex: Employee records in this example)
This process can be implemented through BindingSources through its CurrentChanged event, as they are bound to specifc data and GridView as bound to BindingSources
private void bsDepartments_CurrentChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
bsEmployees.DataSource = this.GroupEmployee [(Department) bsDepartments.Current];
}
 
Complete Code:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace SecondLINQ
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
private List Departments = new List();
private List Employees = new List();


public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();

dgvEmployees.AutoGenerateColumns = true;
dgvDepartments.AutoGenerateColumns = true;

loadDepartments();
loadEmployees();


var matchingEmployees = from dept in Departments
join emp in Employees on dept.DeptNo equals emp.DeptNo
into AvailableEmployees select new { department = dept, employees = AvailableEmployees };

this.GroupEmployee = matchingEmployees.ToDictionary(x => x.department, y => y.employees);

bsDepartments.DataSource = GroupEmployee.Keys;
}



public class Department
{
private int deptNo = 0;
private String deptName = String.Empty;
private String deptLoc = String.Empty;

public Department() { }

public Department(int DeptNo, String DeptName, String DeptLoc)
{
deptNo = DeptNo;
deptName = DeptName;
deptLoc = DeptLoc;
}

public int DeptNo
{
set { deptNo = value; }
get {return deptNo;}
}

public String DeptName
{
set { deptName = value; }
get { return deptName; }
}

public String DeptLoc
{
set { deptLoc = value; }
get { return deptLoc; }
}


}

private class Employee
{
private int employeeNo;
private String employeeName;
private int deptNo;
private String job;
private Double salary;

public Employee() { }

public Employee(int EmployeeNo, String EmployeeName, int DeptNo, String Job, Double Salary)
{
employeeNo = EmployeeNo;
employeeName = EmployeeName;
deptNo = DeptNo;
job = Job;
salary = Salary;
}
public int EmployeeNo
{
set { employeeNo = value; }
get { return employeeNo; }
}
public String EmployeeName
{
set { employeeName = value; }
get { return employeeName; }
}
public int DeptNo
{
set { deptNo = value; }
get { return deptNo; }
}

public String Job
{
set { job = value; }
get { return job; }
}

public Double Salary
{
set { salary = value; }
get { return salary; }
}
}



private void loadDepartments()
{
Departments.Add(new Department(10, "Sales", "Hyderabad"));
Departments.Add(new Department(20, "Purchases", "Mumbai"));
Departments.Add(new Department(30, "Admin", "Mumbai"));
Departments.Add(new Department(40, "Accounts", "Mumbai"));
Departments.Add(new Department(50, "Training", "Hyderabad"));
Departments.Add(new Department(60, "Stores", "Hyderabad"));

}

private void loadEmployees()
{
Employees.Add(new Employee(1, "Krishna Prasad", 10, "Manager", 30000));
Employees.Add(new Employee(2, "Rajesh", 10, "Clerk", 10000));
Employees.Add(new Employee(3, "Ramesh", 10, "Assistant", 5000));
Employees.Add(new Employee(4, "Ragesh", 10, "Computer Operator", 4000));

Employees.Add(new Employee(5, "Murali", 20, "Manager", 30000));
Employees.Add(new Employee(6, "Anil", 20, "Clerk", 10000));

Employees.Add(new Employee(7, "Karthik", 30, "Manager", 30000));
Employees.Add(new Employee(8, "Anirudh", 30, "Assistant", 7000));

Employees.Add(new Employee(9, "Sarma Chada", 40, "Manager", 15000));
Employees.Add(new Employee(10, "Anupama", 40, "Assistant", 3000));
Employees.Add(new Employee(10, "Anirudh", 40, "Accountant", 7000));

Employees.Add(new Employee(11, "Sailesh", 60, "Store Keeper", 4000));


}

private void bsDepartments_CurrentChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
bsEmployees.DataSource = this.GroupEmployee [(Department) bsDepartments.Current];
}
}
}



Hope this helps you

Regards,
Krishna

Extracting data from multiple database tables using LINQ

Extracting data from multiple database tables using LINQ

Introduction

I have been working on C#, ASP.Net and SQL Server long time. Now the time has come for the need to explore the latest .Net framework 3.0 and 3.5 features. This is because many companies are looking forward to call their windows based applications through web as Smart client. Some applications need animated (2D/ #D) graphics in their sites.

I hope all the latest applications (.Net based) use the goodness of the latest .Net Technologies to build web based data centric enterprise applications.

As may of us developing enterprise data oriented applications, we have some difficulties in debugging the database objects like stored procedures, functions etc. We need to write a bit more code to get data from database, update and save it back to database, searching for the data and for providing pagination and sorting for the data.

LINQ solves all the above discussed difficulties


.NET Language-Integrated Query

After two decades, the industry has reached a stable point in the evolution of object-oriented (OO) programming technologies. Programmers now take for granted features like classes, objects, and methods. In looking at the current and next generation of technologies, it has become apparent that the next big challenge in programming technology is to reduce the complexity of accessing and integrating information that is not natively defined using OO technology. The two most common sources of non-OO information are relational databases and XML.

Rather than add relational or XML-specific features to our programming languages and runtime, with the LINQ project we have taken a more general approach and are adding general-purpose query facilities to the .NET Framework that apply to all sources of information, not just relational or XML data. This facility is called .NET Language-Integrated Query (LINQ).

LINQ has a great power of querying on any source of data, data source could be the collections of objects, database or XML files. We can easily retrieve data from any object that implements the IEnumerable interface. Microsoft basically divides LINQ into three areas and that are give below.

• LINQ to Object {Queries performed against the in-memory data}
• LINQ to ADO.Net
• LINQ to SQL (formerly DLinq) {Queries performed against the relation database only Microsoft SQL Server Supported}
• LINQ to DataSet {Supports queries by using ADO.NET data sets and data tables}
• LINQ to Entities {Microsoft ORM solution}
• LINQ to XML (formerly XLinq) { Queries performed against the XML source}



In this article I am trying to extract data from multiple database tables using LINQ. We need to have some knowledge in simple SQL query writing. LINQ looks like a simple SQL query for extracting the data. We can use LAMDA expressions and Extension methods in this process. We can easily execute stored procedures and functions

The DataContext class provides the main entry point for the LINQ to SQL framework. The DataContext is the source of all entities mapped over a database connection. It tracks changes that you made to all retrieved entities and maintains an "identity cache" that guarantees that entities retrieved more than one time are represented by using the same object instance.

In general, a DataContext instance is designed to last for one "unit of work" however your application defines that term. A DataContext is lightweight and is not expensive to create. A typical LINQ to SQL application creates DataContext instances at method scope or as a member of short-lived classes that represent a logical set of related database operations.

In my Example I am extracting data from Northwind Database (in SQL 2005). You can download sample databases from Microsoft site (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e719ecf7-9f46-4312-af89-6ad8702e4e6e&displaylang=en) and it is very easy to install the databases in SQL server 2005

Step #1: Create a new website (C#) in Visual Studio 2008 / Visual Studio 2005.

Step #2: Right click on the project and click on “Add + New Item”. Select “Visual C#” in categories and “LINQ to SQL classes” from templates, rename the file (.dbml) name as “Northwind.dbml”

Step #3: Click on View menu in Visual Studio IDE and select Server Explorer. This shows the available Database connections. Right click on “Data Connections” in Server explorer and then click on “Add New Connection”. Provide the required information to get connected with “Northwind” database in SQL Server

Step #4: Explore the new data base connection for tables, select “Categories”, “Order Details”, “Orders” and “Products” tables from the lists. Drag and drop the selected tables on the “LINQ to SQL Classes” (Northwind.dbml) designer. As specified below




Step #5: Add a GridView control to Default.aspx page. Open the Default.aspx.cs file and add the below code

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
int startRow = Convert.ToInt32(Request.QueryString["Row"]);
BindProducts(startRow);

}

private void BindProducts(int startRow)
{
NorthwindDataContext db = new NorthwindDataContext();

var products = from p in db.Products
//where p.Category.CategoryName == "Beverages"
//select p;
//where p.OrderDetails.Count > 2 && p.Category.CategoryName == "Beverages"
where p.Order_Details.Count > 2
select new
{
ID = p.ProductID,
Name = p.ProductName,
NumOrders = p.Order_Details.Count,
Revenue = p.Order_Details.Sum(o => o.UnitPrice * o.Quantity)
};

GridView1.DataSource = products.Skip(startRow).Take(10);
GridView1.DataBind();
}
}

Run the application, we can see the data in GridView control

As we can debug the query (in code), put some break points at “var products” and watch the below query

“{SELECT [t0].[ProductID] AS [ID], [t0].[ProductName] AS [Name], (
SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM [dbo].[Order Details] AS [t2]
WHERE [t2].[ProductID] = [t0].[ProductID]
) AS [NumOrders], (
SELECT SUM([t4].[value])
FROM (
SELECT [t3].[UnitPrice] * (CONVERT(Decimal(29,4),[t3].[Quantity])) AS [value], [t3].[ProductID]
FROM [dbo].[Order Details] AS [t3]
) AS [t4]
WHERE [t4].[ProductID] = [t0].[ProductID]
) AS [Revenue]
FROM [dbo].[Products] AS [t0]
WHERE ((
SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM [dbo].[Order Details] AS [t1]
WHERE [t1].[ProductID] = [t0].[ProductID]
)) > @p0 }

This is interesting thing, actually LINQ expression are converted into SQL when they get executed at database server end.

One more interesting thing is LINQ supports for paging also, look at the below line of code

GridView1.DataSource = products.Skip(startRow).Take(10);

We can start at a specific position of the row and take the no of other required rows. This can be done in LINQ using method extensions. Wow! How simple it is now for paging the data in the grid view



Hope this helps you

Regards,
Krishna