CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#linq
drewwyatt
drewwyatt

Reputation: 6027

Is it possible to access the parent of a Linq object?

In a situation where an EntitySet is being queried (in, say, a many-to-many relationship), is it possible to access the parent object?

e.g

Thing thing = db.Things.First();
Widget widget = thing.Widgets.First();
// Let's assume that Widgets can have many things as well
// (i.e. widget.Things is possible)
widget.ParentThing // would return the same instance of thing used above

Is that possible?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 114

Answers (1)

D Stanley
D Stanley

Reputation: 152511

is it possible to access the parent object

With a many-to-many there really isn't a "parent" - there are multiple related objects. A many-to-many is usually modeled with navigation properties:

public class Thing
{
   public int ID {get; set;}
   public virtual IEnumerable<Widget> Widgets {get; set;}
}

public class Widget
{
   public int ID {get; set;}
   public virtual IEnumerable<Thing> Things {get; set;}
}

If your model doesn't have such properties then an alternative is to go back to the context (or back to the db if you don't have the context anymore):

var relatedThings = db.Things
                      .Where(t => t.Widgets.Any(w => ID == widget.ID));

Upvotes: 4

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