Entity Framework - Include in sub query?

Question

I'm not sure if this has been answered yet, I looked at a couple of questions but I don't think they were quite what I was after.

Let's say I have 3 tables:

Restaurant 1.....M MenuCategory 1.....M MenuItem

I have a L2E query that looks something like this:

Restaurant = context.Restaurant
   .Include(r => r.MenuCategory)
   .FirstOrDefault(r => r.RestaurantId == resaurantId);

Which works to some extent, but it only pre-loads the menu categories.

As a work around I am able to iterate around each category and call .Load() on them, but this will involve hitting a lot more that in theory I should need to.

What I really want to be able to do is something like:

Restaurant = context.Restaurant
   .Include(r => r.MenuCategory)
   .Include(r => r.MenuCategory.MenuItems)
   .FirstOrDefault(r => r.RestaurantId == resaurantId);

But clearly this isn't available as r.MenuCategory is an enumerable

ANSWER 1:

context.Restaurant.Include("MenuCategory.MenuItems");

This works, but it is not strongly typed. I wonder if anyone is able to come up with a second answer that is strongly typed (I may move this to another question as this has been answered, and answered well.

I have moved this to another question as I felt it was unfair to take away from an answer that is perfect and works exactly as it should:

Entity Framework - Include in sub query? - Part 2

Jack Woodward · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-08 01:37:58Z

7

You can still use the Strongly typed version to do it. Just use:

    Restaurant = context.Restaurant
    .Include(r => r.MenuCategory.Select(m => m.MenuItems))
    .FirstOrDefault(r => r.RestaurantId == resaurantId);

edited Aug 8, 2011 at 1:37

answered Aug 4, 2011 at 5:10

Jack Woodward

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JustLoren · Accepted Answer · 2009-11-02 18:26:10Z

2

This link here seems to resolve your problem ?

var result = context.Restaurant.Include("MenuCategory.MenuItems");

answered Nov 2, 2009 at 18:26

JustLoren

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2 Comments

Paul Over a year ago

Well done - this sorted the issue for me....but, I really don't like this untyped approach, which is why I'd used an extension method. I will put the extension method in the question - just wonder if anyone is able to come up with a typed solution

Paul Over a year ago

I have setup a part 2 to this question here, stackoverflow.com/questions/1663783/…, if you're interested

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